lililHl 

i y ! li 111 'hP lllm^ 



lifirli 



iiiilllllliiiiiiiir 
iliiilii! 



1 ml !i 



iililr 



yiipiiiiiiiii 

"' "; hi iii' 




i it I! 



i !l 



V 



■''tit' W 



1 



liili 

2 

li if! 

! !bI 



! 



! i \i 



iiiUHi ;; iiin» 



11 



i ililili!! 






! S!Mfi 



!' h ' 



m u 



m ! 



ill 



tji 



i! 



H 



liliiiilpl 




^m 



ilil Li, iiii 

iiililliil 



liiliSli 



il'l I' 



I 




I iiiii 



lliiii 



iiiiiii 



iillii 







• i! 

m 



i 1 1! 



•1 Hi 



! 1 



! Mi 111 



I liliPP 



''(»! 

j.l:.l<i 



1 . iS i 



Iiii 






iiiiiiipi'i^ii^iiiiii 



ill ii •', l>ilit-,lli 



ii.iliiii: !i 

i; >i I' '! 



hi 



iii: 




Class E^<^0.__- 



\M N^ 



COHYKIGIIT PEPOSrr. 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 



^,m0 ^' 




K 1 (■ H A K I) W 1 H I) M I' S N 
A ii f 7 S 



RICHARD W. 
THOMPSON 



MEMORIAL 



A. B. MORSE COMPANY, Publishers 

ST. JOSEPH, MICHIGAN 



340 



LIBSARYofCONQaESsT 
Two CoDies Receivec) 

DEC SI 1906 

>Cepyrlfhf Entry 

CLASS A XXc, No, 

/ O ;^-^/ 
CO^'Y b/ ' 



Copyrighted by 

D. W. Henry, Terre Haute, Ind. 

1906. 



Composition and Presswork 

BV 

A. B. MORSE COMPANY. 
St. Joseph, Mich. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Frontispiece ...... 

President Hayes' Cabinet .... 

Autograph Letter of Lincoln 
Autograph Letter of Hon. John M. Clayton 
Col. Richard W. Thompson at 87 years 
Bust of Col. R. W. Thompson on Pedestal 



PAGE 

5 
16 

24 

35 

153 

171 



CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION, .... 
ORDER SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, 
BRIEF SKETCH, 

LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS— 

President McKinley, 
Governor Mount 
Ex-President Harrison 
Vice President Fairbanks 
Hon. C. B. Landis . 
Hon. Geo. W. Paris 
Governor Durbin 
Consul-General Gowdy 
Judge A. B. Crane 
Jacob Baur 

F. J. Scholz . 
R. A. Brown 
T. J. Charlton 
George I. Reed 
A. E. Nowlin . 
Hon. J. Frank Hanly and Will R. Wood 
Mrs. Martina SwafFord 
Mary Hartwell Catherwood 
Col. Green Clay GoOdloe 

G. R. Stormont 
Russell B. Harrison 
W. H. Hart 
Hon. W. R. Gardiner 
Capt. W. H. Armstrong 
J. R. Cummings 
C. C. Colne 
Judges I. N. Pierce and C. F. McNutt 
Alice Fisher Harcourt 

MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS— 

Thompson Club .... 

Ft. Harrison Club .... 

Rose Orphan Home 

Rose Polytechnic, Board of Managers 

Rose Polytechnic, faculty 

Rose Polytechnic, .\lunini 

Post G. T. P. A 

Blinn Camp, Sons of Veterans 

Common Council, City of Terre Haute 

Washington Avenue Sunday School 

Columbia Club 

State OtTicers Association 

Republican State Convention 

Lincoln League 

Chairman State Conventiion 



PAGE 

II 
14 
15 



45 
45 
46 
46 
47 
47 
47 
48 
49 
49 
49 
50 
50 
50 
51 
51 
51 
52 
52 
52 
53 
53 
54 
54 
55 
55 
56 
56 

59 
60 
62 
63 
64 
66 
66 
67 
69 
70 

71 
72> 
74 
74 

75 



CONTENTS 

FUNERAL— Terre Haute Papers . 

EDITORIALS, PRESS— 

Terre Haute Gazette 
Terre Haute Express 
Terre Haute Tribune 
Indianapolis Journal 
Indianapolis News 
Indianapolis Press 
Chicago Record 
Chicago Inter Ocean 
Chicago Journal 
Chicago Evening Post . 
St. Louis Globe Democrat 
Chicago Tribune 
Kansas City Star 
Western Christian Advocate 
Other State Papers 

PROCEEDINGS OF BAR MEETING— 

Judge James H. Jordan 
Judge S. B. Davis . 
Judge T. B. Long . 
Gov. James A. Alount 
Judge John H. Baker 
Hon. John L. Griffiths 
Hon. John T. Hays 
Judge John V. Hadley 
Judge D. W. Comstock 
Hon. D. E. Williamson 
Dr. W. H. Wishard 
Judge A. F. White 
Judge R. S. Taylor 
Hon. Geo. A. Knight 
Hon. Thos. J. Golden 
Hon. W. P. Fishback 
Hon. M. G. Rhoads 



PAGE 

79 



83 
85 
86 

87 

89 

90 

92 

93 

95 

96 

97 

99 

100 

100 

102-111 



115 
116 

119 
127 
130 
132 

135 
137 
139 
140 
142 
144 

147 
147 
148 
149 
149 



MISCELLANEOUS— 

Hon. W. H. H. Miller . 
Gen. McGinnis 
Hon. John G. Williams 
Hon. Fred Landis 
Martina Swafford 

ORATION— 

Hon. J. Frank Hanly 

UNVEILING EXERCISES— 
Memorial Association 
Address— Col. W. E. McLean 



155 
155 
156 
156 
159 



160 



173 
175 



Introduction 

Richard WIgginton Thompson was born in Vir- 
ginia while the echoes of the Revolutionary War 
were distinctly audible. Reared among men who 
participated in that great struggle and in the for- 
mation of the Republic, governmental affairs were 
the chief subjects he heard discussed during his 
boyhood. Quite naturally this gave his mind a 
bent towards statecraft that continued to the end 
of his long life. Moreover, he was peculiarly gift- 
ed for participation in public affairs. Graceful, 
fluent, forcible, eloquent speech came to him as song 
comes to a bird. He was a born orator. Added 
to this equipment were the clarion voice that ena- 
bled him to reach the largest crowd, and a per- 
sonal presence that attracted men to him. Natur- 
ally, therefore, he became the spokesman for his 
fellows on all public occasions, and thus, without 
conscious effort on his part, he entered public life. 

As ready with his pen as with his tongue, he 
was for many years, whether in or out of office, — 
and his marked preference was for private station, 
and he expended more effort to keep out of office 
than most men spend to get office, — the formula- 

II 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

tor of policies, the writer of platforms, the advo- 
cate of his party in the press and on the platform. 
For more than a half centun' it could have been 
truly said of his country's progress and its political 
history, — all of which he saw and much of which 
he was. 

The evening of his days was spent in his librar>' 
at his home in Terre Haute among his books, sur- 
rounded by his family and his friends. And when 
the end came, the town and State and Nation 
mourned his loss. Tributes to his life and in honor 
of his memory came from every quarter. 

It has seemed fitting, therefore, to gather these 
scattered roses and weave them into a garland. 
That has been done and constitutes this memorial 

volume. 

W. C. Ball. 

\ 



12 



A BRIEF SKETCH 



(irb^r ^rrr^taru Naug 



GENERAL ORDER | 
No. 539. j 

NAVY DEPARTMENT. 
Washington, D. C, February 12, 1900. 

The Secretary announces to the Navy and 
Marine Corps the death, on the 9th instant, at 
Terre Haute, Indiana, of the Honorable Richard 
W. Thompson, formerly Secretary of the Navy. 

As a mark of respect to his service in that high 
official position, extending from March, 1877, to 
December, 1880, under the administration of 
President Hayes, and as a deserved tribute to his 
memory, this order is issued and will be placed 
upon the records of the Department. 

JOHN D. LONG, 

Secretary of the Navy. 



A Brief Sketch 

On the birthday and wedding day of his mother 
— February 9, 1900 — Richard Wigginton 
Thompson died. He was born June 9, 1809, in 
Culpepper County, Virginia. 

His father, William Mills Thompson, was a 
merchant in the Town of Culpepper and a farmer 
in the same county. 

Both his grandfathers were officers in the Rev- 
olutionary War. 

His maternal grandfather, Major William 
Broadus, was for many years United States Pay- 
master and stationed at Harper's Ferry. He was 
an ardent Federalist, a friend and on the staff of 
Washington. 

His mother, Katherine, died when he was ten 
years of age. His father then married Miss Mil- 
dred Ball, a grand niece of George Washington 
and granddaughter of Charles Washington. 

During his boyhood days he worked on his 
father's farm. 

His early education was obtained in a classical 
school, supported by the Glebe, which was in 
charge of a scholarly Rector. 

15 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

His higher education was supervised by a tutor 
employed for this purpose in his country home, 
and when he had attained his majority he had a 
liberal education for that time. 

He was a devoted student of history and his 
political opinions were well and clearly defined at 
an early age. 

His father having married into the Washington 
family, his home became the scene of many gath- 
erings of notable men, — old men who had been 
active in the Revolution. 

Federalists and friends of Washington assem- 
bled at their fireside and discussed the questions 
of State regarding the youthful government. 

However, his father was an adherent of Jeffer- 
son and a strong personal friend of Jackson, but 
the Federalists were always welcome guests at the 
Thompson home. These revolutionary soldiers 
had fought for the independence of the Colonies 
and were emphatic in their opinions on the ques- 
tions dividing the political opinions of the citizens 
of that day. While listening to these revolution- 
ary stories and discussions, bent was given to the 
mind of young Thompson and the idea of a strong 
centralized government became the dominant iden 
in his political make-up. 

i6 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

His mother was a Federalist and so were her 
people and after his mother's death he was reared 
principally by an aunt on his mother's side. She, 
and her people, had much to do in shaping his 
political opinions. 

At an early age he made a trip on horseback 
into Tennessee for the purpose of disposing of a 
farm belonging to his father. Having once seen 
the West, he determined to return. 

About the time of his majority he went to 
Louisville and while working in a store there, he 
made the acquaintance of a merchant from Bed- 
ford, Indiana, who had come to this store to pur- 
chase goods. As a result of this acquaint- 
ance, he determined to go to Bedford. While 
at Bedford he clerked in a store, arriving there 
with fifty cents, — all the money he had in the 
world. 

« 

His education was far in advance of the educa- 
tion of most people in that locality and he was 
engaged to teach in the Seminary. The late 
Judge A. B. Carlton, a lawyer in this city, and 
the late celebrated Dr. Elkana Williams, of Cin- 
cinnati, were among his students. His teaching 
was of short duration. Having an opportunity to 
purchase some law books, he bought them, and 

1/ 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

after the store was closed he read them over and 
over by candle light. 

His early histor)' at Bedford is better told in 
the following story by Alexander Donahue : 

"I was down at Louisville buying goods in 1831, I 
think it was. While there I was introduced to a young 
man by the name of Thompson. He did not look to 
be more than 18 years old. He told me he came from 
Virginia and asked me if there was any "opening" 
in or about Bedford, and I asked him if he could teach 
school. He said he didn't know ; he could try ; he did- 
n't suppose the hig^lier branches were taught. I told 
him "No," and then he said he would go with me. 
We started the same afternoon, Thompson borrowing 
a horse to make the trip. 

"On reaching Bedford I employed him to clerk in 
the store. Afterwards he was given a school. At the 
close of the term my employer, afterwards my father- 
in-law, took him into the store and gave him a clerk- 
ship. He and I slept together on a counter for a 
year and a half. We would make our bed by spreading 
a bolt or two of cloth from the shelf out on the coun- 
ter, placing another roll under our heads for pillows. 

"He picked up a copy of the Statutes somewhere 
soon after entering the store and began reading it 
carefully. Dick, you know, never forgets anything 
he reads, and in a little while he knew the laws of 
Indiana, as they then existed, by heart. 

"One dav a fellow came into the store in a "state 
of mind." He was involved in a scrape and the law- 
yers in town had been retained on the opposing side. 

18 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Thompson volunteered to defend the man, and, to 
the surprise of everybody, cleared him. His conduct 
of the case and his exposition of the law excited the 
wonder and admiration of the inhabitants, and after 
that everybody wanted that 'little Thompson,' as they 
used to call him, when they got into trouble. 

"In a few months he was obliged to give up his 
position in the store and devote his whole time to the 
legal business that piled upon him. His talents and 
devotion to the law attracted the attention of Judge 
Dewey of Charlestown, Indiana, who loaned him 
books with which to finish his course of reading. In 
three or four months he was regularly admitted to 
the bar, and from that time on it was smooth sailing. 

"He lived in Bedford twelve or thirteen years, dur- 
ing which time we sent him to the Legislature twice 
and the State Senate once, and finally we sent him to 
Congress. At the expiration of his term in Congress 
he moved to Terre Haute." 

In 1834 he made a canvass for the Legislature, 
with the understanding that his salary as clerk 
should continue while making the canvass. He 
was re-elected in 1835 and in 1836 was elected to 
the State Senate. While in the Senate he was 
chosen President Pro Tem, and after the resigna- 
tion of Lieutenant-Governor Wallace, during the 
administration of Governor Noble, Thompson 
acted as Lleutenant-Gov^ernor. 

His title of "Colonel" was bestowed upon him 

19 



RICHARD W THOMPSON 

when he held that rank on Governor Noble's staff. 
by which title he was known all his life, notwith- 
standing he held the commission of "Captain" 
during the Rebellion and was the Judge of his 
Circuit. 

His first law partnership was with George G. 
Dunn at Bedford. Mr. Dunn was afterwards 
elected to Congress. 

In the stormy campaign of 1840, as an Elector- 
at-Large for Harrison, was when his power on the 
stump was felt all over Indiana. This will ever 
remain historical and to this presidential battle he 
owed his unanimous nomination for Congress the 
next year. In 1841 he was elected, running 
against the Honorable John W. Davis, who after- 
wards was U. S. Commissioner to China and 
Speaker of the National House of Representatives. 

At the end of this Congressional term, in 1843, 
believing that Terre Haute would be a city of 
importance and desiring to locate in a larger place, 
he moved there to practice law and make his 
future home. 

In 1847, ^"^ without his knowledge, he was 
nominated for Congress in the Terre Haute Dis- 
trict, running against the Honorable Joseph A. 
Wright, who afterwards became Governor of 

20 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Indiana. He was elected and while in this Con- 
gress his acquaintance commenced with Mr. Lin- 
coln, and this acquaintance ripened into an inti- 
mate friendship, which grew and strengthened 
with time and they became close and confidential 
friends. 

It may be of interest to incorporate in this 
sketch an autograph letter of Mr. Lincoln's, which 
would give the reader some idea as to the estima- 
tion in which Mr. Lincoln held Colonel Thomp- 
son, especially the postscript of the letter. 

Also another letter of a subsequent date from 
the Secretary of State, the Honorable John M. 
Clayton, which conv^eys the information that 
Colonel Thompson had declined the position. 

A special session of Congress was called by Pres- 
ident Harrison, who did not live to see it con- 
vened. It was a remarkable body and many of 
the men who were either famous at that time, or 
who afterwards became so, were members. 

Among his colleagues in the House were Gov- 
ernor Wise and J. Minor Botts, Winthrop, Cush- 
ing and John Quincy Adams, Fillmore and Fer- 
nando Wood, Harvey M. Watterson and John 
Marshall, Joshua R. Giddings and Wm. P. Fes- 
senden. 

21 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Among the great senators were Franklin Pierce, 
Rufus Choate, Levi Woodbury, James Buchanan, 
Wm. R. King, Calhoun and Butler, Oliver H. 
Smith and Thos. H. Benton and Henry Clay. 

Having served this congressional term, he was 
never again a candidate for any office at the hands 
of the people, nor was he an applicant after that 
for any political position. 

In 1849, as heretofore stated, he was tendered 
the appointment of Minister to Austria by Presi- 
dent Tavlor, but declined. He was endorsed for 
that appointment, without his knowledge, by Mr. 
Lincoln, then a member of Congress. Afterwards 
he was appointed General Solicitor of the Land 
Office by President Fillmore, which he declined. 
Mr. Lincoln appointed him Judge of the Court 
of Claims, a life position. This he also declined. 
Then the President tendered him the position of 
Examiner of the Central Railroad. This he de- 
clined. 

At the beginning of the War of the Rebellion 
Colonel Thompson was in Washington much of 
the time and a great many of his evenings were 
spent at the White House, with the President, after 
his callers had gone, telling stories to each other 
and discussing questions uppermost in the minds of 

22 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

both of them and the great questions affecting the 
conduct of the war. 

The most momentous question of his Hfe con- 
fronted him on the breaking out of the Rebellion. 

He inherited slaves when he attained his ma- 
jority and on that same day he stripped off their 
chains. 

It was in the 30th Congress that Mr. Thomp- 
son and Mr. Lincoln met, — Virginian and Ken- 
tuckian, standing side by side on all questions. 
Notwithstanding he had been an Abolitionist with 
his own personal property, yet he and Lincoln 
were the only two northern Whigs in Congress 
who voted against the proposition to abolish slave 
trade in the District of Columbia. 

Thompson was a Southern man. When Sump- 
ter was fired on and the first red signal fires of the 
Civil War burst out in flames, though importuned 
by his own people in the Old Dominion, who were 
high up in the armed confederacy, to stand by his 
kindred and his native state, yet when the burning 
question — "Shall the Union Live?" — came to him 
for answer, his voice and energies were for the 
Union. 

His law books were laid aside; his services were 
tendered to Governor Morton and to Mr. Lin- 

23 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

coin. He was appointed Provost Marshal to assist 
in raising troops. He organized and drilled the 
71st, 85th and 97th Regiments at Camp Dick 
Thompson. From the firing of the first gun until 
Lee's surrender his waking hours were given to 
his country. 

With him the war was over when Lee gave up 
his sword to Grant. He had but little sympathy 
with the carpet bag government as maintained in 
the South, and when the Hayes' Cabinet withdrew 
the U. S. troops from guarding the State House 
in Charlestown, it did not meet with any opposi- 
tion from him. He maintained that these guards 
were a standing provoke and a useless menace, 
tending to keep alive the war feelings, which could 
do no good to the Union and certainly none to the 
South. It was a good time to commence a recon- 
ciliation, — a reconciliation completed by McKin- 
ley — waiting only for the sinking of the Maine 
to more fully merge it into a national brotherhood. 

After the close of the war he served as Collector 
of Internal Revenue and Judge of the Circuit 
Court by appointment. 

With these exceptions, he held no public office 
until called into the Cabinet of President Hayes in 
1877 as Secretary of the Navy, which position he 

24 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

held until he resigned to take charge of the affairs 
of the Panama Canal Company in this country. 

Before his appointment as Secretary of the 
Navy he had held the position of General Counsel 
for the Vandalia Railroad Company for twenty- 
five years, beginning with that Company when 
Chauncey Rose, Esquire, of Terre Haute, con- 
structed the same. 

Be it said to the credit of President Hayes that 
he selected for his Cabinet men that he had confi- 
dence in, and, having this confidence, he expected 
them to control their departments. He did not 
look upon them as clerks, nor did he take credit 
personally for the acts of the members of his Cab- 
inet. 

Colonel Thompson managed the Navy Depart- 
ment along business lines, having for his ultimate 
object the up-building and Americanizing our 
navy. It was soon after accepting this portfolio 
that the impression gained current and became un- 
derstood that the moneys belonging to the Gov- 
ernment and whatever Congress appropriated for 
his Department, unless needed or used, would be 
turned back into the treasury. 

Speaking of his duties and his methods at that 
time he said: 

25 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

"I have the Department running to suit me. I 
have had everything to learn, — how the business of 
the Department was conducted and how it should be 
done. Now it is fair sailing. I did not recognize any 
opposition to my methods. There is but one head in 
the navy and I am the man and I did not ask or care 
if anybody objected to my management. When my 
investigations gave a man trouble and he expressed a 
desire to resign, I told him he could resign when his 
accounts with the Government were settled, not be- 
fore. The abuses which have crept into the navy are 
very easily remedied. I accept no contract without 
a guarantee and the completion of the job. I have put 
a stop to the sale of Government property at less than 
its cash value." 

His acts as Secretar}' of the Navy are a part of 
the public records. But there are two events that 
occur to my mind which should be briefly referred 

to: 

On assuming his duties, it became evident to his 
mind that there ought to be some changes. He 
was given an absolutely free hand by the Presi- 
dent. 

Among other things, he found that a majority 
of our seamen in the Navy were foreigners and 
could not speak our language, and it occurred to 
him that they might not be entirely safe to rely 
upon in case of war with a foreign power. Tn 
order to place the Navy on a safer basis for emer- 

26 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

gencies he inaugurated and organized what he 
called "Naval Training Ships," and recruited 
American boys to be trained for Seamen. In the 
first squad recruited were eleven taken from the 
City of Terre Haute, and the first review of these 
American Seamen took place at Fortress Monroe, 
fifteen ships taking part in the review. This was 
the beginning of the Americanizing of the Amer- 
ican Navy. 

In view of our recent expansion in the East, in 
taking over the Philippines, it may be of interest to 
refer to the opening up of commercial relations 
with Corea. I find a memorandum written on the 
fly-leaf of a book, which explains itself and is as 
follows : 

''While Secretary of the Navy, I placed the U. S. 
S. Ticonderoga under the command of Commodore 
R. W. Shufeldt, with instructions to circumnavigate 
the world with the view to the extension of American 
commerce. My instructions to him were dated Octo- 
ber 9, 1878. Among other things, they contained 
the following : 'To visit some part of Corea with the 
endeavor to re-open, by peaceful measures, negotia- 
tions with that government. It is believed that the 
attack upon the Corean forts in 1871 is susceptible of 
satisfactory explanation and that a moderate and con- 
ciliatory course towards the government would result 
in the opening of the ports of that country to Ameri- 

27 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

can commerce. You will give special consideration to 
this subject.' 

"Commodore Shufeldt visited Corea and contribut- 
ed very materially, it is believed, to the establishing 
of commercial relations with that country. His report 
remains on file in the Navy Department, never having 
been published. — R. W. T." 

About three months before the term of Presi- 
dent Hayes expired, and on the advice of the 
Honorable John Sherman and others, he accepted 
the position of the Chairmanship of The Ameri- 
can Committee of the Panama Canal Company, 
which he held nine years. Connected with the 
Committee and the organization were three finan- 
cial institutions of New York. City, — Drexel, Mor- 
gan & Co., Winslow, Lanier & Co., and J. & W. 
Selligman. 

At the beginning of his services with that com- 
pany he purchased the Panama Railroad Com- 
pany, giving a check for the same, which at that 
time was the largest single check that had been 
given in any business transaction of this country. 
After its purchase he was made Vice-president of 
the Railroad Company, with a large salar\', not 
one dollar of which he ever drew, believing that 
his salary from the Canal Company was sufficient 
pay for his services, as that salarv' was three times 

28 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

that of a cabinet officer. The last three years of 
his connection with the Canal Company he reduced 
his salary voluntarily one-half. 

When the Panama Canal Company in Paris 
went into bankruptcy, this ended his connection 
with that Company. Afterwards there was a Con- 
gressional investigation and the Committee came 
from Washington, consisting of Mr. Patterson of 
Tennessee and Mr. Bellamy Storer of Ohio as a 
Sub-committee. The examination took place in 
the Colonel's library. It was at this examination 
that he first knew that these banking houses had 
been receiving enormous annual allowances for 
their services and influence in connection with the 
canal in this country. 

The Committee did not wait until they returned 
to Washington to make a report to Congress to 
exonerate Colonel Thompson, but frankly, in his 
own residence and in his own library, told him that 
no blame would be or could be attached to him In 
any manner for his actions or work in connection 
with his position as Chairman of the Panama Ca- 
nal Company. 

It must be borne in mind that his duties in con- 
nection with the Canal Company were very exact- 
ing. He spent a great deal of his time in his 

29 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

office in New York City, also looking after its 
affairs in Washington and with Congress. 

He understood the temper of the American 
people and their methods of expediting business. 
He was earnestly in favor of digging the Canal by 
contract, believing that the American Contractors 
would complete the work in a shorter time and for 
less money than the way the work was then being 
handled. He tried to impress this fact on the 
company at Paris, but his advice availed little. 

Nothing is accomplished without opposition 
and there was a great deal of opposition mani- 
fested from time to time at the idea of the French 
gaining a foothold on American soil. Important 
questions had to be discussed and determined. 
Among the lawyers employed by Colonel Thomp- 
son were Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and others. 
While Colonel Thompson was a religious man, 
yet his admiration for Colonel Ingersoll was as 
intense as for any other man then living, and from 
that time on, they were lasting friends. One of 
the last acts of Colonel Ingersoll's life was to look 
after Colonel Thompson's interest in the courts of 
New York City. 

Severing his connection with the Panama Canal 
Company, he spent the remainder of his days in 

30 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

thinking, studying, planning and reading about 
the welfare of his country and her people. His 
hours were spent in his library surrounded by his 
family and his friends. Here he would be found 
working until midnight, while all the people on his 
street were asleep. 

The writer had heard that he was an applicant 
for the position of U. S. District Judge of Indiana 
at the time Judge Gresham was appointed and 
asked the Colonel if he had been an applicant for 
this position. He smilingly but firmly said that 
he had not been an applicant, but he afterwards 
learned that his name had been used by some of 
his friends in that connection, but that Senator 
Morton doubted the advisability of appointing 
him because he was too old, and that President 
Grant was of the same opinion. Hesitating a 
minute he said, "I have lived to preach both of 
their funerals." 

He did not hesitate to impress his opinions upon 
others, but did not do so in an uninviting way, — in 
fact he was always thinking, and thinking out 
loud. 

He was for progress, — for education. He was 
one of the first Trustees of the State Normal. 

When in Congress and the Father of the Tele- 

31 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

graph asked for a subsidy to build a line from 
Baltimore to Washington, he was on the Commit- 
tee and went to New York to examine Morse's 
invention. Having examined it, he voted a sub- 
sidy out of the National Treasury- to build the line. 

This cost his colleague, Mr. Wallace, his next 
election. 

He was among the Hrst to advocate a railroad 
to the Pacific Coast. 

His range of reading was as wide as the range 
of literature and the natural sciences. He studied 
all questions, whether religious, secular or politi- 
cal, and one of his most intimate friends when he 
first came to Terre Haute was Father Lalumiere 
of St. Joseph's Church. His friendships were al- 
ways strong, so this friendship between the lawyer 
and the priest was a strong one. They agreed 
politically but not religiously and the outcome of 
these friendly discussions on religious matters was 
the "Papacy and the Civil Power," and his further 
researches into these questions led him to write the 
additional work, "Footprints of the Jesuits." 

The writing of his "Personal Recollections" 
came about by the following incident, — the Terre 
Haute Literarv Club, which held weekly meetings, 
was without a reader for its next meeting and 

32 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

having but three days In which to secure one and 
knowing that the Colonel was always ready, they 
requested him to give his recollections of the great 
men that he had met, or his experience in Wash- 
ington, or any subject along that line that he might 
select. Having no time In which to think about 
his subject or to put It In any form, he simply gave 
the Society a "talk" on the subject of his "Recol- 
lections of the Presidents." Unknown to him his 
"talk" was taken by a stenographer and when 
transcribed and handed to him, he was surprised 
that he had been reported. He corrected and 
added to this manuscript until he became Interested 
in the subject about which he had talked, and this 
continued interest led finally to his writing his 
"Personal Recollections of the Presidents." 

He believed In American Protection as a means 
of building up American industries, and believed 
in discriminating against foreign manufacturers 
and In favor of our factories and our own market. 
He believed that when our factories and our pro- 
ductions were protected, the laboring man would 
and should receive the benefits therefrom, and, not 
be placed on a level with foreign labor. Conse- 
quently, he had always advocated a Protective 
Tariff. For this doctrine, his pen and voice were 

33 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

always ready; and to show and prove that his 
doctrine on this subject should be the pohcy of 
this government, he wrote the "History' of the 
Tariff." 

He was a man who was careful of his personal 
appearance and just as careful of his language and 
speech. His language was always chaste and 
never in the presence of gentlemen did he utter any 
word that was not fit to be spoken to ears most 
polite. 

His interest in young men was the absorbing 
thought of his mind in the latter part of his life 
and he gave much of his time to their entertain- 
ment and instruction by lectures. The Rose Poly- 
technic Institute, of which he was one of the Man- 
agers and for a time President of its Board of 
Managers, was the object of a great deal of his 
attention. The older he grew the fonder he be- 
came of the young, and it seemed that age was 
merging into the ways of childhood. 

He gave no thought to money, but only looked 
upon it as a means of living. If you measure this 
man by what he did for his country and his people 
and party and government, his life was a success. 
If you measure him by the accumulation of wealth, 
notwithstanding he was in a position to have ac- 

34 



v^w^MHlHaiipppi 



■^JM 



^^ 



'cy^^a..^Cl^ 



<a,t,-ii»^^^-i.«-«.-i*' ^J' "i 









•^ J?.^ C^< f^-£*^ <(V^t- 









^ ^C^ ,. ^y^^ y rr. , . y ^-^ 'O^ ■ ' 



r.^-i..^.c^.^ "/ /^ 



/ 



'J^.^,.:^- ^^^f--, /' ^'■"^' 



<5<^ <'Z- 



^4^ ^i^l^e^'^-'-^ /*r^=«».^ 4j 



/■f,^€^y /'- /'r-t^'-y. <^-f« 



^; ^:ir^...y y y'^-'r /y^y-'y ^'"- 



yV ' y''' ' '■ •''"' . 



/^, . ^^ 



^^. ,-<. ^ '<^-- 



/: ^- 




■l / 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

quired much, then his hfe was a failure. He came 
into the world and into the State of Indiana with 
no possessions. He left the world with no estate, 
except a good name. 

His mind was continually on his studies. He 
was an omniverous reader. No student ever put 
in more hours with his books and his mind was 
continually on the welfare of his country and of 
its people. 

In 1840 he made a canvass of the State of 
Indiana as Elector-at-Large for Harrison, and 
forty-eight and fifty-two years afterwards he gave 
as loyal and ardent support, making speeches not 
only in Indiana but in Illinois and Ohio, for the 
elder Harrison's grandson. 

Long before his death he was the only survivor 
of the Indiana Legislature of 1834 and the only 
living member of Congress of 1841 and 1847 ^"^ 
the only surviving member of Hayes' Cabinet, 
except Sherman, Schurz and Evarts. 

Fifty years is a long stretch of time in a lifetime 
but that comprehends the period between his elec- 
tion to the Indiana Legislature and his retirement 
from office of Secretary of the Navy, and yet, 
nineteen years of his life was spared after his 
retirement from office, all of which time was spent 

35 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

as earnestly for his country as when he held office. 
It was during his retirement and after he was 
over seventy years of age that he gave his best 
thought to the country, free from political bias or 
prejudice, about the administrations of the sixteen 
Presidents of the United States. 

Taking his life all in all, one of the most mar- 
velous things about it was its active working lon- 
gevity. When asked what mode of life he had 
adopted to keep himself in such excellent physical 
condition, he replied: 

"None in particular. I have just lived naturally. I 
have never set down any rules of life and followed 
them. I have done about as I pleased. I have been 
out in all kinds of weather, at all times of day and 
nig^ht. In the matter of drinking I have always been 
a temperate man. In all the years I spent in Washing- 
ton, I never drank so much as a glass of wine. I felt 
that I needed all my faculties and decided I would 
take no chance of impairing them." 

One of the favored themes he loved to dwell 
upon was the life and character of John Quincy 
Adams. In 1889 he delivered a lecture in Wash- 
ington on Adams, Jackson and Clav. in which he 
said: 

"I do not know any man in this country compara- 
ble to Mr. Clay as an orator, and I liave heard, it would 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

be impossible for me to say how many, — but all the 
distinguished men of this country for the past fifty 
years. Clay was not like Webster. I remember his 
farewell address when he left the Senate. He stood 
among- his friends and among those who had been his 
enemies and bade farewell forever, as he supposed, to 
his associates and implored the blessings of the Al- 
mighty God to rest upon the members of the Senate 
and upon the entire country. There was not a dry eye. 
I saw him advance and shake hands with Calhoun. 
They had not spoken for years. It was a great sight 
and I felt when I saw it that I was a better man than I 
was before. These two great adversaries grasped 
each other's hands in friendship and forgot at the 
instant all their enmities. They both shed tears ; 
neither of them could speak." 

Of John Quincy Adams, he said: 

"I served in Congress with him more than three 
years and saw him when he fell at his desk. He died 
like a medieval knight, with his armor on ready for 
conflict or peace, ready to receive a favor or an injury, 
more ready to strike back harder and stronger than he 
was struck. One moment he was as simple and playful 
as a child ; another, when aroused by the assaults of his 
adversary, he was as fierce as an unchained tiger. 
With his death came a void which perhaps has not yet 
been filled and may never be. He had served the coun- 
try during his entire life and died with his harness on.'" 

Speaking of General Jackson, he said: 

'T heard him read his inaugural address and with 

37 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

my father called upon him at the White House. Jack- 
son was not an orator. If there ever lived in this land 
a man who loved the country better, was more ready 
and willing to make sacrifices for the Union history 
gives no account of him." 

Colonel Thompson receiv-ed many great ova- 
tions during his long public life in Congress, as 
Secretar)^ of the Navy, and when he delivered his 
speech at Baltimore, but there was no occasion or 
demonstration which gave him more joy than 
when the citizens of Terre Haute, of all classes 
and conditions, united to celebrate his 85th 
birthday in 1894. This occasion was the crown- 
ing glory of his life. Great men of the country 
came from far and near to mingle with his own 
fellow^ citizens to pay their respects to him and 
when they had all spoken, the last of whom was 
President Harrison, whose speech had seldom 
been equaled on any rostrum, the Colonel rose and 
said: 

"I cannot express my gratitude. I have simply at- 
tempted to discharge every obligation imposed upon 
me by my fellow-citizens, whether in public or in pri- 
vate life. The fathers of the men around me on this 
stage held the places of responsibility when I came to 
Indiana sixty years ago. They laid the foundations 
and used their strength to make Indiana what she is 
to-day," and, said he. turning to President Harrison, 

38 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

"no man did more than your grandfather. All honor 
to the name of Harrison." 

His 90th birthday was celebrated at the ban- 
quet table at the Terre Haute House by the 
Thompson Club, surrounded by more than 250 
of his friends. It was presided over by W. W. 
Parsons, President of the State Normal School, 
and the Honorable Charles Landis was the prin- 
cipal speaker of the occasion, who was followed 
by the Honorable George I. Reed, who had been 
an ardent friend of the Colonel all his life. 

Among other things Mr. Landis said: 

"A listening youth, from the lips of the Continental 
soldiers, he learned the history of his country. He saw 
Appomattox years before it came; he wept with Lin- 
coln over the country's sorrow, but never failed to 
stand by Morton, the man of iron. He has always 
stood for growth and progress and to-day at 90 years, 
he is still young, and to-night we greet him, we con- 
srratulate him, and we extend assurances to him of 
our love and veneration." 

It was midnight before he rose to reply to the 
various speeches at this reception, and he closed 
his remarks by saying: 

"No man lives to-day who served with me in the 
Legislature of this State. I came to Indiana, — God 
bless Indiana — it has been a father and a mother to 

39 



RICHARD \V. THOMPSON 

me ; I have tried to be a devoted son to her. I came 
to Terre Haute, — God bless Terre Haute. I learned 
my politics in the revolutionary school when I sat on 
the knee of my $2:randfather, who served with Wash- 
ington." 

Before another of his birthdays could be hon- 
ored by the citizens of the city he loved so well, 
before the succeeding Winter's storms had passed 
and another Spring had come, he began to fail, — 
old age, the unvanquished reaper of the lives of 
all, was to be reckoned with and to be reckoned 
with without delay. It was becoming apparent 
that his long, useful and eventful career was draw- 
ing to a close. 

No more great conventions, no more services 
to his country, no more orations to move the multi- 
tudes, no troops of little children to hand him 
flowers on birthdays, for he had lived three gener- 
ations and his last fight was coming on with an 
adversary that had never been conquered. 

His physician. Dr. W. H. Roberts, was in faith- 
ful, constant attendance. He had been troubled 
with nausea for four weeks before taking to his 
bed. The strongest part of his physical organi- 
zation — his stomach — began to fail him. The 
last solid food which he ate was an egg prepared 
by his little grandson, for whom he would do any- 

40 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

thing. As his appetite gradually left, he only 
took nourishment at the urgent request of his 
family. In all his former attacks, he quickly re- 
covered because his stomach was his strong re- 
source, and by his ability to take nourishment he 
was quickly restored to himself again. But the 
last hope was gone when this vital resource failed 
to come to his rescue and his once powerful con- 
stitution was unsupported. 

A gradual dissolution of the faculties com- 
menced, like the burning down of a candle. He 
had lived his allotted span of life, — nearly 91 
years, for four days on the brink of the chasm sep- 
arating this life from, that beyond. His bed- 
room, where he was confined six days before his 
death, was across the hall from his librar}\ He 
tried to walk the floor but had to be supported, 
soon became exhausted, and would lie down. His 
mind was as bright as ever until the last three days. 
His last intelligible words were to inquire if the dif- 
ferent members of his family were at his bedside. 

In the three days of his delirium he tried over 
some of the most noted lawsuits in which he had 
figured, — went over the scenes of the stormy days 
of the Rebellion, became blind and asked for 
more light, and his pulse quickened, then it was 

41 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

painfully evident that his mind was wandering 
back to his former activities and his strongest fac- 
ulty — his mind — was the last to leave him. 

At one o'clock and ten minutes, on the 9th day 
of February, he expired, surrounded by all his 
family, who could be present, and his grandchil- 
dren and relatives. Peacefully and quietly was 
the end of the earthly career of one of the kind- 
liest, most lovable and truest of men, — at perfect 
peace with every human being. 

Truly it has been said that he was the last con- 
necting link between the Fathers of the Republic 
and the present generation. His own kindred 
were connected with the family of the Father of 
his Country; he had seen and heard Patrick 
Henry, LaFayette, and the writer of the Declara- 
tion, was a companion of Clay and Webster and 
Adams; had seen the soldiers of the Revolution; 
had seen the Statesmen who made the Articles of 
Confederation, the signers of the Declaration, the 
framers of the Constitution; and, when a boy, 
had sat on the knees of those who fought at King's 
Mountain, Brandywine, and Yorktown. 

D. W. H. 



42 



TELEGRAMS AND LETTERS 



Telegrams and Letters 

PRES'T WM. McKINLEY. 

Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, 

February lo. 

Please receive for the family of the late Secre- 
tary Thompson the sincere sympathy of Mrs. Mc- 
Kinley and myself. WiLLlAM McKinley. 



GOV. JAMES A. MOUNT. 

Executive Department, Indianapolis, 

Indiana, February 9. 

I mourn the death of Colonel Thompson and I 
beg you to convey to the bereaved members of his 
family my heartfelt sympathy. He was Indiana's 
"Grand Old Man." Sincerely beloved by all our 
people, and although he was allowed the age of 
the Psalmist's limit of human life, his loss will be 
keenly felt, not only in Indiana, but throughout 
the Union he served so long, so faithfully, and so 
well. James A. Mount. 

45 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

EX-PRESIDENT BENJAMIN HARRISON, 

12 14 North Delaware Street, 

Indianapolis, Indiana. 

I was greatly grieved by the news of the death 
of Colonel Thompson and beg to express to all 
the members of his family my sympathy with them 
over their great loss. He had so gallantly defied 
the assaults of old age upon his physical and men- 
tal powers that we did not think of him as a ver\' 
old man. His career is a most honored and nota- 
ble one and he will be very widely mourned. I 
fear I will not be able, as I wish, to attend the 
funeral ser\Mces by reason of a very severe and ob- 
stinate cold that has hung about me for some 
weeks. 

I will, however, in spirit, if not in bodily pres- 
ence, follow its venerable form to its resting place. 
Very sincerely yours. 

Benj. Harrison. 



U. S. SENATOR CHAS. W. FAIRBANKS, 

Springfield, Ohio, February 11, 1900. 

Kindly extend to the family of Colonel Thomp- 
son my profoundest sympathy. A noble and sweet 
character has gone. 

Chas. W. Fairbanks. 

46 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 
CONGRESSMAN C. B. LANDIS. 

House of Representatives, 
February 26. 

How lonesome you must be without "Uncle 
Dick." What a sweet and a gentle man he was. 
He was buried on Lincoln's birthday. I was in 
New Haven that day and heard Congressman 
Sperr}^ pay Indiana's most gifted orator a beauti- 
ful tribute. He had heard Colonel Thompson 
with Tom Corwin in '44. 

Sincerely your friend, 

C. B. Landis. 



CONGRESSMAN GEORGE W. FARIS. 

House of Representatives, Washington, 

February 12. 

I regret recent absence from Washington which 
prevented attendance at funeral of your distin- 
guished father. My family join me in sympathy. 

George W. Faris. 



GOV. WINFIELD T. DURBIN, 

Anderson, Indiana. 

Permit me to express to you, and through you 
to the members of Colonel Thompson's family, 

47 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

my personal sympathy in their bereavement and 
loss. As a citizen of Indiana I share the loss of 
one who has given the State prominence and by 
his life and labors assisted in giving it the place it 
now holds. 

Colonel Thompson was a leader, and men and 
his party delighted to follow. He was the pride 
of his party and you know how conventions were 
swayed by his words of eloquence and wisdom. 

The State will miss him. Another of her great 
men has departed. 

Kindly bear my regards to the family. 

Very truly yours, 

WiNFIELD T. DURBIN. 

February i ith. 



TRIBUTE OF CONSUL GOWDY. 

"Office of the Consulate General of the 
United States of America. 

Paris, Februar>' 27, 1900. 

It gives me great sorrow to learn of the death 
of Colonel Thompson. He was indeed a great 
man. His heart was in the right place. From my 
first acquaintance with him I admired and loved 
him. He was born the same year as my father, 
and in many respects he acted as a father towards 
me. To say that I will miss him when I return to 
Indiana and visit Terre Haute but feebly expresses 
my feeling at this time. 

He has gone to his reward; has pitched his tent 

48 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

in the far beyond. Please convey to Miss Thomp- 
son and your dear wife my heartfelt sympathy in 
their sad loss. 

With kind regards to you and yours and to all 
my Terre Haute friends, I am, 

Yours very truly, 

John K. Gowdy. 



JUDGE A. B. CRANE. 

SCARSDALE, N. Y., Feb. 9. 
My sympathy for sisters, brothers, all in their 
sorrow. Your noble father is dead but lives. 

A. B. Crane. 



JACOB BAUR. 

Chicago, February 9th. 

Permit me in your time of sorrow to express for 
you and your brothers and sisters my sincere sym- 
pathy. People mourn the loss of a Nation's noble- 
man in the death of your father. 

Jacob Baur. 



F. J. SCHOLZ. 

I beg to tender to you and the other members of 
Mr. Thompson's family my profound sympathy. 
The State has lost one of her most prominent citi- 
zens. F. J. SCHOLZ. 

49 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

ROBERT A. BROWN. 

Office of Clerk of Supreme Court, 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

I convey to you and your family my sincerest 
sympathy, A memory of an honored and illustri- 
ous father is your heritage. I have for years been 
an ardent admirer of Uncle Dick Thompson and 
shall cherish the memory of his friendship. 

Please convey my respects and sympathy to the 
family. R. A. Brown. 



INDIANA REFORMATORY FOR BOYS. 

Plainfield, Ind., February 9. 

The end of our dearly beloved statesman has 
come. I feel that the Colonel is the last of the 
entire race. In this commercial age it was refresh- 
ing to see one left as the type of the statesman of 
the earlier days of the republic. 

T. y. Charlton. 



GEORGE I. REED. 

Indianapolis, February 9. 

Our sincere sympathv in your profound sorrow. 
Colonel Thompson was most lovable. Goodness 
and greatness were united in his life. 

George I. Reed. 

50 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

A. E. NOWLIN. 

U. S. Collector Internal Revenues. 
Lawrenceburg, Ind. 

This morning's paper tells me that the "Grand 
Old Man," "Uncle Dick" has passed to the Great 
Beyond, not unwept, unhonored and unsung, as 
some do, but full of years, covered with honor, 
enshrined in the love and memory of his country- 
men for his many noble traits of character and 
his devotion to the interests of his country. 



HANLY AND WOOD. 

Lafayette, Ind., February lo. 

We claim the privilege of sharing your grief. 

Accept our sympathy. A great man has gone. 

The State and Nation will miss him. 

J. Frank Hanly, 
Will R. Wood. 



MARTINA SWAFFORD. 

You and the family of my dear old friend, 
Colonel Thompson, have my sorrowful sympathy. 
Your loss is everyone's loss. This expression 
comes late, but I could not write before on account 
of illness. Yours truly, 

Martina Swafford. 

51 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD. 

Chicago, February' 9. 

Accept sympathy from one who honors that dis- 
tinguished statesman. 

Mary Hartwell Catherwood. 



GREEN CLAY GOODLOE. 

Washington, D. C, February 12. 

Our fullest sympathy goes to you and family in 
loss of your distinguished father and patriot. 

Green Clay Goodloe. 



THE DAILY CLARION. 

Princeton, Ind., Febmary 9, 1900. 

No one who has passed away in this generation 
will be more sincerely mourned by the people of 
Indiana. He was a "Grand Old Man" in even- 
sense of the word, and it is a gratification to me 
now, that he has gone, that it was my privilege to 
meet him at his home a short time before his life 
work was done. You will kindly express to Mrs. 
Henr>' and the other members of the family my 
sincere sympathy in their bereavement. 

Very tnily yours. 

G. R. Stormont. 

52 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

RUSSELL B. HARRISON. 

1704 Grace Street, 

Omaha, Neb., Feb. 11, 1900. 

I feel ver>' sad to hear that your father has re- 
ceived his final call. 

His life was so full of interesting events, ener- 
getic work, and honors that he will be sadly missed 
in Terre Haute and Indiana, and throughout the 
nation. 

He so fully and completely rounded out a great 

and grand life's work that his children may well 

be proud of their heritage, and he will receive in 

the great beyond the reward coming to him — 

"Well done, good and faithful servant." 

Accept my sympathy. 

Very sincerely yours, 

Russell B. Harrison. 



OFFICE OF 

AUDITOR OF STATE OF INDIANA. 

W. H. Hart, Auditor. 

Indianapolis, February 9, 1900. 

I have just read with a great deal of regret the 
bulletin announcing the death of Hon. R. W. 
Thompson. He was one of a fast fading genera- 
tion of gentlemen of the olden type, a thoroughly 
equipped man in mind, character and personality. 

53 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

His death will be regretted in as many American 
homes as probably that of no other citizen. In 
private or public life, he has always done his dut>' 
and this is as honorable an epitaph as could mark 
the resting-place of any man. 

Convey my sincere sympathies to his family and 
to yourself. Very sincerely yours, 

W. H. Hart. 



W. R. GARDINER. 

Washington, D. C, February 12. 

You, and All those who Mourn by the Death 
Bed Have my sincerest sympathy. Mine is a part 
of the universal sorrow and I stand in the shadow 
of the All Pervading Gloom. 

W. R. Gardiner. 



CAPT. W. H. ARMSTRONG. 

Indianapolis, Fcbnum- 9. 1900. 

I was greatly pained to hear of Colonel Thomp- 
son's death. Am sure that the whole Countr>' will 
be in mourning over the sad event. 

Kindly express my sincere sympathy to all the 
family. Yours sincerely, 

\\'m. 1 1. .Armstrong. 

54 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

J. R. CUMMINGS. 

Chicago, February lo. 

We all honor the grand old man who has gone 
to join his comrades of 1809. The death of one 
whose life was so full of honor and love is like the 
setting sun, not sad but solemnly beautiful. 

J. R. CUMMINGS AND FAMILY. 



C. C. COLNE. 

(Mr. Colne was the Confidential Clerk of 
Colonel Thompson in the office when he was 
President of the American Committee of the Pan- 
ama Canal Company.) 

New York, February 17, 1900. 

It was with much pain that I saw in the news- 
papers the death of my good old friend, Colonel 
Thompson. 

It is true that he lived to a good old age, but 
no matter how long a man may live his death is al- 
ways a sad blow to his friends and relatives. My 
connection with Colonel Thompson has been so 
pleasant that I personally regret his death very 
much, and I offer my sincere sympathy to all the 
members of his family who, of course, must feel 
his loss keenly. 

About a year ago I received a letter from him 
in which he complained of his health, but neverthe- 

55 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

less it was written in his usual cheerful st>'le, typical 
of his disposition in life. 

Will you please convey to the members of the 
family of Colonel Thompson my heartfelt sym- 
pathy in their hour of bereavement. 

Very truly yours, 

C. C. COLNE. 



JUDGE I. N. PIERCE AND C. F. McNUTT. 

Los Angeles, Cal., February' 9, 1900. 

Accept for yourself and family our profound 
sympathies. 

I. N. Pierce .and C. F. McNutt. 



ALICE FISHER HARCOURT. 

Detroit, February' 11. 

My deepest sympathy with your family. I 
mourn with you. 

Alice Fisher Harcourt. 



56 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS 

Thompson Club, 
Fort Harrison Club, 
Rose Orphan Board of Managers, 
Rose Polytechnic Board of Managers, 
Rose Polytechnic Faculty, 
Rose Polytechnic Alumni ^Association, 
Post G, Travelers' Protective Association, 
Blinn Camp, Sons of Veterans, 
Common Council, City of Terre Haute, 
Washington Avenue Presbyterian Sunday 
School, 

Columbia Club, Indianapolis, 
State Officers Association, Indianapolis, 
Lincoln League, State of Indiana, 
Republican State Convention, and 
Chairman of that Convention. 



Memorial Resolutions 

THOMPSON CLUB. 

At a meeting of the Thompson Club, the fol- 
lowing resolutions were read by Hon. J. T. Wal- 
ker, Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, 
and was unanimously adopted : 

Be it Resolved — That we, the members of the 
Thompson Club, in mass meeting assembled, do most 
deeply and sadly mourn the loss of our distinguished 
leader, the late Honorable Richard W. Thompson, the 
grand old man and gallant statesman for whom our 
Club has the pride and honor of being named ; and be 
it further 

Resolved — That his early and earnest devotion to 
the immortal principles of his party, and his high ideal 
of political life, have endeared him to his Nation, and 
rightly enrolled his name among the pioneers of the 
Republican party, furnishing an example strikingly 
worthy of emulation, and an inspiration of patriotism 
destined long to do noble service to his party and his 
country ; and be it further 

Resolved — That while the citizens of the city of 
Terre Haute most keenly deplore the loss of their dis- 
tinguished fellow-townsman, the congeniality of his 
companionship, the wisdom of his counsel and the 
wholesome influence of his life in social circles, and 
educational and industrial enterprises, the State and 
Nation also bow their heads with us in grief, and say 

59 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

most surely we have lost a good and faithful citizen — 
loyal to his country — just to his fellow-man — true to 
every trust and devoted to God ; and be it further 

Resolved — That we renew our plighted faith in the 
doctrines and principles of protection and the purity 
and freedom of the ballot (the bulwark of American 
liberty) by him so often enunciated and so ably de- 
fended by his wise and fiery words of eloquence, which 
are long to be cherished in the hearts of his countrymen 
as monitors within. And be it further 

Resolved — That we extend our sincere sympathy to 
the members of his family in this, their sad affliction. 
And be it further 

Resolved — That these resolutions be spread upon 
the records of our Club, and that copies thereof be 
furnished to the several newspapers of our city. 

J. T. Walker, 
S. A. Hughes, 
Wilbur Reif, 

Committee. 



FORT HARRISON CLUB. 

At a special meeting of the Fort Harrison Club, 
the following tributes to the memory of the late 
Colonel Richard W. Thompson were adopted and 
ordered spread on the records of the club, and a 
copy thereof sent to the family of our departed 
member: 

'When men meet in a simpler way. without the re- 
straint of business, political, or formal social condi- 

60 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

tions, the little things of our nature, that indicate the 
real character of the man, becomes apparent, no matter 
what our differences, age or other distinctions, we are 
for the time boys again. 

"Colonel Richard W. Thompson was to the Nation 
that mourns him to-day the statesman whose years 
and deeds link us to the past, the orator whose ringing 
rhetoric has charmed the hearing of members of five 
or six generations of men, and the author whose latest 
books are records of important public events that 
could have been made from the personal knowledge 
and recollections of no other man. 

"He was more than all this to us, to the members 
of Fort Harrison Club, who have met him in this 
simpler way — a boy in our Boyville of recreation and 
pleasures, although from twenty to sixty years the 
senior of our membership, he was the genial and con- 
genial companion of all. 

"For well toward the span of a lifetime he has al- 
most daily spent an hour or two in the afternoon in 
relaxed pleasures in our midst. It was there and then 
he became young again and made us the companions 
of his revived youth. Who of us have not been bene- 
fitted, complimented and delighted with this compan- 
ionship? This companionship that will be cherished 
in our memories with pride and pleasure while mem- 
ory holds its seat. 

"Others will recount your words and deeds as a 
nation's product and pride. Others will say of you 
more tender words than we can here express. But 
none, save those who have known you as we have 
known you, will miss and mourn you as we do. 

6i 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

"Patriarch and Patriot! Grand old man and 
friend ! In mind and heart we stand aligned and un- 
covered as we bid you 

"Hail ! and farewell ! 

"Fort Harrison Club." 
By R. G. Jenckes, President, and George A. Scott. 
Secretary. 
Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 12, 1900. 



THE ROSE ORPHAN HOME MEMORIAL. 

Terre Haute, Indiana, 
February 13, 1900. 

At a meeting of the Board of Managers of the 
Rose Orphan Home held this date, the following 
was unanimously adopted: 

Whereas — Richard Wigginton Thompson, who has 
been a member of, and the President of this Board, 
since its original organization, in October, 1874, died 
at his residence, No. 12 14 South Sixth Street, this 
city, on Friday, February 9, 1900, mourned, honored 
and loved by the entire community for his probity, and 
nobleness of character during his whole life among us. 
His experience, wisdom and counsel were ever re- 
lied upon in conducting the affairs of this organiza- 
tion ; hence it is that in his death the loss is so keenly 
and deeply felt by us all. Therefore be it 

Resolved — That in the death of our friend and col- 
league we have been deprived of the counsel and asso- 
ciation of one who has enjoyed our respect, affection 
and confidence in the higliest degree. 

62 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

To whose virtues, integrity and private worth we 
bear willing testimony ; whose kind heart was in the 
work of this Association; who discharged all the du- 
ties of life with fidelity ; and who won universal confi- 
dence and respect in the performance of every trust. 

Resolved — That we tender to the family of our de- 
parted associate our deepest condolence and sympathy 
in their deep affliction and bereavement, and that the 
secretary furnish them with a copy of this Memorial, 
and that it be spread upon the minutes of this Board. 

Attest : George E. Farrington, 

Secretary. 



THE ROSE POLYTECHNIC. 

BOARD OF MANAGERS. 

In the death of Richard W. Thompson the Rose 
Polytechnic Institute suffered an irreparable loss. A 
member of the Board of Managers for many years, 
and of late years its President, he brought to the dis- 
charge of his duties large experience, mature judg- 
ment, and enthusiastic devotion to the interests of the 
Institute. He never missed a meeting when his health 
permitted and was often present when attendance 
meant great discomfort and some risk. Whatever 
special duties were assigned to him in connection with 
his position he performed with thoroughness and abil- 
ity, as he did everything he undertook. At succes- 
sive commencements, for a number of years, he pre- 
sented the diplomas to the members of the graduating 

63 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

classes, and memorable features of those exercises 
were the addresses he delivered. He saw with the 
eyes of faith and love, in the graduates whom he ad- 
dressed, the promise of progress even more remark- 
able than that which was embraced with the large 
circle of his own Hfe's experience. And so he talked 
to the young men about to enter on their life work as 
one who relied on them to harvest in the years to 
come, the unripened hopes of his own life, for he was 
a lover of his kind and of his country and was entirely 
unselfish in his devotion to them. How much 
of a loss his death is to the Institute, those realize 
most who were most familiar with his interest in and 
concern for its welfare. As a mark of respect to his 
memory, his associates on the Board of Managers will 
attend his funeral in a body. By their direction, 
in connection with the faculty, the exercises for the 
day at the Institute will be suspended that all. by at- 
tendance at the funeral, may testify to their apprecia- 
tion of the loss they have sustained in the death of a 
great and good man — patriot, orator, scholar, states- 
man — who was their friend. 

W. C. Ball, 

Vice President. 

R. G. Jenckes. 

Secretary. 



THE FACULTY OF ROSE POLYTECHNIC 

INSTITUTE. 

Colonel Thompson has been President of the Board 
of Managers for many years and has always shown 

64 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

the kindliest interest in everything connected with the 
school. 

He has been present at the meetings of the Board 
until recently, when failing health and strength have 
prevented; he has been present at almost all of the 
graduations for many years and has in almost every 
case made the graduation address to the class, and 
every way has shown a strong personal interest in the 
Institution and in everything connected with it. For 
these reasons, and for many others which it would be 
impossible to even mention here, we, the faculty of 
the Rose Polytechnic Institute, wish to express our 
grateful appreciation of everything which Colonel 
Thompson has done to further the interests of the 
school ; we wish to emphasize his friendliness, to re- 
call his speeches to the graduate classes as they suc- 
ceeded one another in long succession, and to remem- 
ber again the kindly smile and the kindly greeting of 
the genial old gentleman as he recognized anyone who 
belonged in any way to the institute. 

For these and similar reasons, we wish to express 
publicly our grief and our sympathy with the family, 
and as a faculty to spread these sentiments as a resolu- 
tion on our records. 

It is also ordered that in respect to his memory the 
exercises of the Institute be suspended on Monday, 
February I2th. 

Rose Polytechnic Institute Faculty. 

C. L. Mees, 

President. 

J. A. WiCKERSHAM, 

Com. 
65 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

THE ROSE POLYTECHNIC ALUiMNI AS- 
SOCIATION. 

It is with a deep sense of personal loss that we 
learn of the death of Colonel Richard W. Thompson. 
His lone: connection with the Institute has made him a 
familiar figure to all of us. and we feel that a large 
share of the Institute's prosperity is due to his unfail- 
ing devotion to its interests. 

His counsel and advice at the Commencement Ex- 
ercises will be long remembered as incentives to high 
aims in life and his venerable personality will be sadly 
missed from these occasions in the future. 

We, as graduates, coming under the influence of his 
strong character, feel that we are better men for hav- 
ing known him. 

We therefore desire to make this public expression 
of our sorrow and of our sympathy for the members of 
his family, and to that end direct that a copy of these 
resolutions be sent to them and to the city papers, and 
spread upon the minutes of this association. 

R. L. IMcCoRMiCK. '91, 
John B. Peddle, '88. 
John B. Airman, '87, 
Committee on Resolutions. 



POST G., T. P. A. 

Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 10. 1900. 

Whereas — Our beloved and revered citizen, Colo- 
nel R. W. Thompson, has been removed from among 

66 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

us by the inexorable hand of death, and whose re- 
mains now await the last solemn rites before being 
committed to the grave, 

Resolved — That in common with all citizens of the 
Nation and more particularly with the citizens of this 
communitv who have witnessed, revered and honored 
his home life, we are made to suffer bereavement, and 
that we condole with those who mourn, and 

Resolved — That in the fullness of his long and use- 
ful life and manhood, we find, as all men should, an 
inspiration for good citizenship and an incentive for 
all that goes to make the sum of a pure and noble life 
with its beautiful, patient and impressive ending. 

Resolved — That we tender a copy of these resolu- 
tions to the immediate relatives of Colonel R. W. 
Thompson, as the sincere expression of, and in behalf 
of, the resident members of the Travelers Protective 
Association of America. 

F. M. Flesher, 
W. D. Chambers, President. 

Secretary. 



SONS OF VETERANS, BLINN CAMP. 

Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. lo, 1900. 

While the whole community is bowed in sorrow 
over the death of our late distinguished citizen. Colo- 
nel Richard W. Thompson, Blinn Camp Sons of Vet- 
erans desires to express its sorrow and sympathy for 

67 



RICHARD. W. THOMPSON 

the members of his family over the loss they have sus- 
tained. 

Colonel Thompson's stately form seemed to be a 
link between two centuries. He was one of the last of 
the great statesmen of half a century ago, and was a 
contemporary and friend of the great Lincoln. He 
was a true friend of his country and of his fellowmen. 
His eloquent voice was always heard on every occa- 
sion where patriotism, right or justice were assailed. 
Although he was honored with some of the greatest 
offices in this State and Nation, yet he was always the 
same kind, courteous and considerate gentleman. 
While he took an active part in politics, yet among 
those who opposed him politically were found some of 
his staunchest and best loved friends. He was firm 
and sincere in his opinions, yet he dealt with his ad- 
versaries with charity and kindness. His kindly face 
always bore a pleasant smile for everyone. He w-as 
loving and attentive to his family, and kind and gra- 
cious to his friends and neighbors. In his own true 
words, "He has not an enemy in all the world, and he 
was the friend of every one." 

It is hereby ordered that the proper officers are di- 
rected to send a copy of these resolutions to the family 
of the deceased, and that a copy be spread upon the 
records of this Camp. Geo. W. Krietenstein, 

Frank J. Turk, 
Jerome W. Perry. 

James E. Thomas, Committee. 

Captain. 

Attest: Geo. W. Schatz. 

First Scri^eant. 

68 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 
TERRE HAUTE COMMON COUNCIL. 

Terre Haute, Indiana, 
February lo, 1900. 

To the Mayor and City Council: 

Gentlemen: — The undersigned committee ap- 
pointed to prepare resolutions suitable to the mem- 
ory of the late Colonel Richard W. Thompson, 
beg leave to report the following: 

It is not often that members of this body have an 
opportunity of paying tribute to the memory of a man 
who has spent the most active portion of his four 
score years and ten among us, nor have any of our 
fellow citizens bequeathed a richer legacy of achieve- 
ments to inspire the pen which seeks to preserve and 
revere his memory. 

At this time, thousands of voices are singing his 
praises, and the press of the land as a unit has devoted 
many columns to the life work of our distinguished 
and beloved Colonel Richard W. Thompson and it 
would now seem impossible to further extol his virtues. 

He has been justly praised as statesman, orator, 
author, public officer and private citizen, — "He was 
a stately, polished, courteous, easy-going gentleman, 
genial, lovable and high-minded that might stand as a 
type of the olden time, as he might in his appearance 
with his well marked features, his eyes flashing, yet 
soft and kindly, and his crown of silver hair," and so 
we might continue multiplying encomiums until ex- 
hausted rhetoric fails in vain effort to pay sufficient 
tribute to his many good qualities. 

69 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Among our remaining duties are to cherish his 
memory, enshrine his manly character within our 
hearts and follow his remains to their resting place, 
therefore be it 

Resolved — That as a mark of respect to our distin- 

■guished fellow-citizen, the common council attend the 

funeral of Colonel Richard W. Thompson in a body, 

and that the flag on the City Hall be placed at half 

mast until the funeral services are over. 

Respectfully submitted. 

Herbert Briggs, 
V. N. Griffith, 
J. J. Roach, 
Philip K. Reinbold, 
L. Goodman. 
Adopted, ordered spread of record and a copy sent 
to the family by a unanimous rising vote of the Coun- 
cil, February lo, 1900. 

William K. Hamilton, 

Cit\ Clerk. 



THE WASHINGTON AVENUE PRESBY- 
TERIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

Since it has pleased the all-wise God to call unto 
himself the Honorable Richard W. Thompson, who 
was the most striking and one of the grandest charac- 
ters of this community, city, State, and Nation, we, the 
members of the Washington Avenue Presbyterian 
Sunday School, take this means of expressing to the 

70 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

family of Colonel Thompson our sorrow and sense of 
personal loss. 

We recognized in him a friend and a man to whom 
we could point and say to children and to adults, 
"There is a man whom it would be well to emulate in 
matters of honor, truthfulness, sobriety, high-minded- 
ness, gentleness and industry." 

We feel that we have lost not only a neighbor whom 
we loved and respected, but also a man of large experi- 
ence whose heart was with the children, and we feel 
ourselves within the shadow which overhangs man, 
woman and child who ever knew the "Grand Old 
Man." With them we mourn and say, "It is good for 
us to have known him, and the world is better for his 
having lived in it." 

(Signed) The Washington Avenue Presbyterian 
Sunday School. 

Adopted, February ii, 1900. 



COLUMBIA CLUB. 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

Whereas — Colonel Richard W. Thompson, whose 
life was so long a part of the life of this State and 
Nation, has passed away, we desire in some formal 
manner to express our appreciation of the man. He 
died full of years and full of honors. His life almost 
spanned the life of the Republic. For three score 
years and more he stood in the white light of public 
scrutiny without a stain on the purity of his life, with- 

71 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

out a blot on the nobility of his character. His dis- 
interestedness, stainless integrity, consecrated eloquence 
and lofty patriotism made him an ideal leader. In 
thinking of him, we realize that age has its compensa- 
tions as well as its drawbacks and that to look back 
upon a life well spent, free from selfishness and envy 
and malice, means more than to look forward to a hot 
struggle for honors which men seek so earnestly, but 
which count for so little in the final reckoning when 
the eternal balance is struck. 

The value of such a life as Colonel Thompson lived 
among men cannot be over-estimated. He never 
spoke an unkind word or did an ungracious act and 
was foremost in all good works. In the family, the 
church, and the State, he always maintained the high- 
est ideals. 

Was never eyes did see that face. 
Was never ear did hear that tongue. 
Was never mind did mind his grace 
That ever thought the travail long ; 
But eyes and ears and every thought 
Were with his sweet perfections caught. 

Resolved — That a copy of this resolution be spread 
upon the records of the Club and forwarded to the 
daily papers and sent to the family of Colonel Thomp- 
son. 

John L. Griffiths, 
HoR.^CE E. Smith. 
Samuel B. Sweet, 

Cotnniiffee. 



72 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

STATE OFFICERS. 

Indianapolis. 

Whereas — It has pleased Ahnighty God in His 
wisdom to summon Colonel Richard W. Thompson 
from this world to His king^dom ; therefore, be it 

"Resolved — That in the death of this illustrious and 
venerable citizen we realize that the State and Nation 
have lost a resolute defender and humanity has lost a 
steadfast friend. 

"Colonel Thompson was a type peculiar to himself. 
He was an ardent partisan without enemies ; a poli- 
tician without selfish purposes ; a born leader who 
sought and procured a following by no other means 
than argument, eloquence and gentleness. From 
early youth to ripe old age his life was characterized 
by conscientious regard for the equality of mankind, 
and his public and private acts were inspired by sin- 
cerity of purpose to serve the best interests of his 
fellow-men, regardless of his own. Born in 1809, 
Colonel Thompson lived in Indiana almost his entire 
adult life, endearing himself to thousands of loyal 
friends, and in various capacities performing valuable 
service in behalf of the public weal. He never shrank 
nor hesitated when duty called. He had convictions 
and he had courage, but his nature was too great to 
permit bitterness to enter into it. He was a conspicu- 
ous survivor of a noble coterie of men who were fa- 
mous as great statesmen at a time when the Republic 
was yet in its infancy. He was a true American and 
an unselfish patriot. His public deeds are a part of 
the history of the State and Nation, and, therefore, 

73 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

need not be recounted here. His home life was hos- 
pitable, lovable and ideal. He lived longer than the 
period allotted to man by the psalmist, and, when the 
final summons came, he accepted it with serene. Chris- 
tian resignation. His faith in the future was sublime 
and he met the inevitable decree 

" 'Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
about him 
And lies down to pleasant dreams.' 

"Resolved — As a further mark of respect to the dis- 
tinguished citizen and statesman, Colonel Thompson, 
that the State officers attend his funeral in a bodv." 



REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION. 

igoo. 
With reverence we refer to the absence from this 
Convention of that grand old man, Colonel Richard 
W. Thompson, whom we all loved and whose memory 
is firmly enshrined in our hearts. Stilled is that voice 
which for more than half a century gave utterance to 
Republican wisdom and eloquence ; at rest is that 
silvered head, which w-as as inspiring as were the 
white plumes of Henry of Navarre. 



THE LINCOLN LEAGUE OF INDIANA. 

igoo. 

"Resolved — That in the death of that patriot, war- 
rior and statesman, Richard W. Thompson, whose 
years of splendid service to his country have endeared 

74 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

him to the people of every State, the Nation sustains 
an immeasurable loss ; and that we, the younger Re- 
publicans of the State, in faithful performance of our 
duty, to our party, and country, can have no higher 
purpose than to propagate the principles and institu- 
tions that he loved and to emulate his noble character 
and devoted patriotism." 



EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF HON. 
J. FRANK HANLY, CHAIRMAN OF 
REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION. 

igoo. 

"In this marvelous transformation, the Republican 
party can justly claim the larger share. Think a min- 
ute while I recall the names of some of those whose 
lives run like entwined threads of silk through the 
pages of the State's first century of history : William 
Henry Harrison, Henry S. Lane, and Oliver P. Mor- 
ton, the most intrepid, stalwart spirit of a most heroic 
age; Schuyler Colfax, Alvin P. Hovey and Benjamin 
Harrison. Stop, my countrymen, and think. Tears 
should mingle with these cheers. There is another, 
whom a Republican State Convention cannot forget — 
one whose name and fame is linked with that of In- 
diana, as is linked the name and fame of Washington 
and Lincoln with that of the Union. We buried him 
but a few weeks since on the banks of that broad river 
he loved and beside which he lived and died. His 
loss to us was great, and we are not yet comforted. 

75 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Our hearts are still heavy with grief. For the first 
time since the birth of the Republican party we are 
to go into a political contest without his inspiring 
eloquence and wise counsel. We miss him, ah, sirs, we 
miss him. And yet, to us, he is not dead. His influ- 
ence lives and will live forever. His spirit pervades the 
hall in which we sit. From these walls there come 
to us echoes of his wit, reason, invective, and elo- 
quence, until for the moment we forget our loss, and 
seem to sit again under the spell of his matchless ora- 
tory, applauding his periods, and laughing and weep- 
ing with him as of yore. No, my countrymen, Rich- 
ard W. Thompson 

" ' is not dead, 

He's just away.' 

"Here, in this assemblage, on the floor there ; yon- 
der, in the gallery ; on this stage, from which he so 
often spoke to us, let us renew our faith in the doc- 
trines he proclaimed, and here make high resolve to 
perpetuate in power the party he loved and served. 
It is a consolation to know that his fame is secure. 
His name is engraved in the forefront of the centuries, 
and is not to be forgotten. He now belongs to the 
immortals. Peace be to his ashes." 



7^ 



PRESS ANNOUNCEMENTS 

FUNERAL 
EDITORIAL 



Newspaper Announcements of 
the Death 

TERRE HAUTE PAPERS— FUNERAL. 

Gazette, February gth. 

"Colonel Richard W. Thompson quiet- 
ly passed away at 1:10 o'clock this 
morning at his home on South Sixth 
street, surrounded by his loving chil- 
dren, who had cared for him so ten- 
derly during the attacks that have come 
upon him during recent years. 

"His death occurred in the middle 
bedroom upstairs in the south side, 
just across from the library where he 
spent so much of his time. 'There were 
present at his death his children — Har- 
ry G. Thompson. Miss Marv Thompson 
and Mrs. Virginia Henry; Judge D. W. 
Henry, his grandchildred — Miss Har- 
riett Henry and Richard P. Henry, and 
also Louis Henry and Alfred Henry, 
Mrs. Dr. Wirt, a niece of Colonel Thomp- 
son's, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Bryant of 
Rockville. old friends of the deceased, 
and Davy Harris, the faithful nurse. 

"The funeral services will be held 
from the family residence. Colonel 

Thompson was a member of the old 
Asbury Church for many years and 
the successor of that church Is the First 
Methodist Church. 

Colonel Thompson was a member of 
Terre Haute Lodge No. 19 F. & A. M. 
and had been for many years. This 
Order will have charge of the funeral. 
The funeral will be held at 2:00 o'clock 
Monday afternoon from the family res- 
idence. The body will lie in state at 
the First M. E. Church." 



Gazette, February 12th. 

"The viewing of the remains of Colo- 
nel R, W. Thompson by the school chil- 

79 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 



dren at the First M. E. Church this 
morning: made a scene never before wit- 
nessed in Terre Haute. All the schools 
were dismissed for the entire day. 
There are 6,500 school children in the 
Terre Haute district schools and the 
High School and every child that was 
able to pet out was in the procession 
that entered the church. This number 
is exclusive of the different parochial 
schools, the State Normal and the Rose 
Polytechnic, so that it is very likely 
that at least 8,000 pupils of the various 
schools passed by the casket containing 
the remains of the distinguished dead. 
Each district was by itself and each 
room was accompanied by its teacher. 
There was no confusion and it was a 
steady procession of children. A guard 
from Co. B and the Thompson Club 
were on either side of the coffin and 
occasionally when a very little tot came, 
he or she was lifted up so as to be able 
to look at the face. Miss Edna Stein- 
acker, organist of the chtirch, softlv 
played the organ all the while." 



The Tribune, February 12th. 

"As the hour for the funeral ap- 
proached this afternoon the immense 
crowd, composed of citizens of all 
classes and walks of life, gathered 
about the homestead to pay their last 
sad honors to the dead. The different 
organizations of the city were present 
and as they and others of the vast 
throng passed through the house, ex- 
pressions of sympathy and of regret 
could be heard on all sides. The gath- 
ering was the largest ever seen in this 
city on an occasion of this kind and the 
large concourse of friends and rela- 
tives which followed the mortal re- 
mains to their last resting place ex- 
ceeded that of any other cortege ever 
seen in this city. 

"The gathering in the residence, 
where the services were held, was im- 
mense and but few of the many who 
desired to be present could be accom- 
modated for lack of room, while the 
route of the cortege to Highland Lawn 
was one continuous throng, all of whom 
felt that they were doing all within 
their power to pay honor to the de- 
parted. Not only was our own city 

80 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 



represented, but in the crowd could be 
seen citizens from all parts of the 
state, for in the death of R. W. Thomp- 
son this city has not been allowed to 
share her grief alone, but other cities 
and the entire state have claimed a 
right to join with us. 

"The funeral was conducted accord- 
ing to the often expressed wish of the 
deceased and was entirely in keeping 
with his modest and unpretentious life." 



The Express, February isth. 

"The mortal remains of Colonel Rich- 
ard W. Thompson were laid away in 
their last resting place yesterday, in 
the beautiful cemetery which overlooks 
the city, with every tribute of love and 
respect an admiring people could pay. 

"A nation seemed to join In the last 
sad rites. The press of the country had 
paid the most appreciative tributes to 
the departed. The State, represented 
by its dignitaries, bent over the bier 
and Terre Haute, as never before, rose 
to say farewell. Surrounded by the 
most beautiful floral offerings the dead 
lay in state at the First Methodist 
Church and later was borne from the 
family home to the grave, while ten 
thousand or more thronged the church, 
streets and homestead. Decrepit age 
and vigorous life and blooming youth 
and helpless infancy poured forth, — 
the halting veteran, men in the pride 
of strength and health, in the full prom- 
ise of youth, in the mere dawn of life — 
to see the dead or to watch the passing 
by of the last of an old, old man, older 
than any of them whose eyes were dim 
and senses failing. It was appropriate 
that ho had been laid in a church, where 
the subdued, solemn tones of the organ 
accompanied the steady tramp of the 
continuous procession which filed 
through, touched by the spirit of the 
place, awed by a glimpse of the calm 
face which seemed chiseled from mar- 
ble, with a new dignity and a great 
calmness and peace. 

"It was all most appropriate — the no- 
ble assemblage of the profession which 
had honored him, and been honored by 
him, the famous men of the state, and, 
above all, of the people, marked by the 
finest courtesy from different sects, 

8i 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 



classes and parties, just as the saintly 
dead would have wished. 

"The funeral services were very sim- 
ple. The Rev. Dr. Tillotson of the First 
M. E. Church read the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church ser\'ice for the burial of 
the dead. Mr. and Mrs. Dan Davis. Mrs. 
John R. Hager and Gabe Davis sang 
Cardinal Newman's great hymn, "Lead 
Kindly Light," and "Some Sweet Day." 

"The active pall-bearers were Arthur 
Baur, Adolph Gagg, J. W. Cruft, W. R 
Mail, J. Smith Talley and Alex Craw- 
ford. 

"The honorary pall-bearers were 
United States Judge John H. Baker, 
Governor James A. Mount, D. W. Min- 
shall. Captain A. C. Ford. Judge Thos. 
B. Long, and E. H. Bindley. 

"The funeral procession included the 
municipal and all civic and organized 
bodies of the city. State officers of 
Indiana, distinguished visitors and cit- 
izens in general. 

"The remains were followed to High- 
land Lawn Cemetery. The body was 
placed in the cemetery vault connected 
with the chapel." 



82 



PRESS EDITORIALS. 

Terre Haute Gazette. 

A good old man has fallen asleep. Here in the 
town where he has lived for a longer period than 
is allotted to most men, the scene of his toils and 
triumphs, surrounded by friends, and without an 
enemy in the world, he has fallen under the bur- 
den of the years and gone to his reward. 

Terre Haute is the poorer, how much poorer 

each recurring year will show, for his taking off. 

It is as if there were one dead in every home, so 

intimately has he been identified with the town and 

its development from village to city. 
* * * 

What the town will do without him is difficult 
to tell. From a very early day he has been its 
spokesman on all occasions of general joy or sor- 
row, whenever citizens have gathered together to 
give expression to the common purpose animating 
all. On all such occasions his clarion voice has 
been heard and we have rested content in full real- 
ization of the fact that the best that could be said 
had been said by him. How large a part he has 
borne in the affairs of town and state and nation, 
history will tell. He was the trusted friend and 
adviser of President Lincoln in this section during 
the dark days of the Civil War. Morton leaned 
on him. For years he wrote the platforms of his 
party in Indiana and he participated in the prepara- 

83 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

tion of the national platforms of his part>% the con- 
ventions of which he always attended for years and 
in which he was always a conspicuous figure. In 
every campaign his voice was heard. 

But here at home in the last decade the people 
of Terre Haute of all parties by common consent 
have forgotten that he belonged to any party and 
have only regarded him as a kind old man, pass- 
ing in honored retirement the evening of his days, 
among his books. Surrounded by family and 
friends, enjoying especially the society of the 
young, he has lived for the most part in his memo- 
ries of the past. And he has been much wrapped 
up in the lives of his grandchildren, illustrating 
the truth of the poet's lines: 

"Toys to the graybeard are his children's children, 
They are to age as hopes to youth." 

His recurring birthday anniversaries of recent 
years have been matters of general interest. All 
classes and conditions of people have united to do 
him honor and to rejoice in the sparing of his life. 
And for many years to come those who have been 
present on any of these occasions will carr>' with 
them pleasant recollections of what was said by 
others about him and especially of what he said. 

During the closing years of his long and event- 
ful and useful life he has had in full measure all 
those things that should accompany old age, — 
honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, — and his 
grave, near the busy city where he lived so long, 

84 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

will be v^Isited with reverence by generations yet 
unborn. 



Terre Haute Express. 

Colonel Richard W. Thompson is dead. Terre 
Haute's most distinguished citizen and most inter- 
esting character has been removed. A singularly 
pure and beautiful life is ended on this earth. Few 
are the people of this city who will not feel a 
sense of personal loss and from all over the land 
will regret be heard. Terre Haute has been proud 
and fond of this exalted and lovable citizen. He 
has been through the wreck and storm of life, en- 
joyed honors and adulation and passed by a score 
of years the allotted time of life to retain to the last 
a purity of character, a gentleness and modesty of 
spirit, the love and confidence and honor and re- 
spect of his home city and home state. He was 
entitled to the appellation of a great man; he was 
a Christian gentleman, for as his old friend Carl- 
ton said, "He was a gentleman without fear and 
without reproach; he was by nature gentle in his 
manner." Though he had stood up among strong 
men and filled large places, again we can say: 

His life was gentle, and the elements 

So mixed in him, that nature might stand up 

And say to all the world, "This was a man." 

To each who knew him will come the thought, 
"I shall not look upon his like again." From a 
pedestal has fallen the figure Terre Haute was 

85 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

proud of, — picturesque, gallant, invested with the 
charm of a fascinating history, a son of the South, 
a citizen of the new West, born near Monticello, 
familiar with the fathers of the republic, a kin to 
Washington, near friend to Lincoln, had seen the 
authors of the Declaration of Independence and 
the proclamation of emancipation, the one man 
who had seen all the presidents but the first and 
second and the orator of high renown whose clar- 
ion notes had rung for the first Harrison, Clay and 
Taylor, for Lincoln, Morton, Hayes, the second 
Harrison and McKinley, a sustained power en- 
during nearly sixty years and without parallel in 
our histon'. In his beautiful old age he had been 
the central, admired figure of great national and 
state conventions. Measured by what many men 
desire, his life was a success. Appointed or elected 
to many offices, often unsought, with troops of 
friends and admirers, with the content of Agar, 
who desired neither poverty nor riches, with the 
good name rather to be chosen than great riches, 
with a serene vision to which the world was always 
beautiful, with a conscience void of reproach, his 
name written in the annals of his country-, with all 
this he had attained a measure of success granted to 
few men we know. We part with him as our 
greatest citizen, but we will mourn him as the one 
beloved. 



Tcrrc Haute Trihuuc. 
In the death of Colonel Richan.1 W. Tho:npson 

86 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Terre Haute has lost the living presence of its most 
distinguished citizen. There is not the shock of 
sudden or unlooked-for death but rather the feel- 
ing that the "grand old man" has gone to his well 
earned rest. None wished for life to have been 
prolonged past the time when it would have been 
a burden to himself and those around him and 
more poignantly recall by contrast the years of his 
vigorous presence in all things in which Terre 
Haute was interested. 

Grown men and women admired the venerable 
man because when children they were told of what 
their grandfathers said of the "silver tongued ora- 
tor's" power sixty years ago. There has been an 
inherited reverence for Colonel Thompson through 
not less than two generations. With no one was 
there anything except kindly respect. He made no 
personal enemies, even of his opponents in politics, 
and when it is realized that he has been a partisan 
of partisans, this means a good deal. 



Indianapolis Journal. 

The death of Richard W. Thompson, more than 
that of any man of to-day, separates a part of the 
first half of the century from the present. He has 
seen all but two or three of the presidents of the 
United States, has seen most of them inaugurated 
and was personally acquainted with those of them 
who have been in office the past fifty years. He 
was in congress more than half a century ago, when 

87 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

John Quincy Adams fell and died in the House. 
Colonel Thompson was a lifelong politician and 
statesman. He had a natural aptitude for politi- 
cal affairs. He became a Whig when the party was 
formed and remained with what was left of it until 
after the election of i860, hoping that the patri- 
otic and conservative remnant could save the coun- 
try and the Union to which they were ardently de- 
voted. But when the war came Colonel Thompson 
lost no time in throwing his political personality' on 
the side of the Union cause. In Indiana there were 
few more useful men to the Union cause than Colo- 
nel Thompson. From that time to the close of the 
last presidential campaign he was an active and in- 
fluential leader in the Republican party. For years 
no other man was thought of as presiding officer 
for Republican state conventions. His speeches 
on those occasions contain a history of the party 
and a clear presentation of the issues. He was 
Secretary of the Navy during the transformation 
period from the old to the new, and when careful 
rather than brilliant administration was demanded. 
To the political history^ of the country he has made 
valuable contributions. 

Colonel Thompson has been personally known 
to more people In Indiana than any other man who 
can be named. He was on the active list in politics 
long after the men of his generation had passed 
away. To the day of his death he held the affec- 
tion of the partv In Indiana as few men ever have. 
His death will be sincerely mourned by people all 
over the State, and particularly bv Republicans, by 

88 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

whom for more than a generation he has been 
affectionately called "Uncle Dick" Thompson. 
He was a man of high patriotism who held the well 
being of the party above personal ambition. 



Indianapolis News. 

In the death of Colonel Thompson, a unique 
and most picturesque character passes. His gen- 
eral temperament, his easy-going disposition, the 
kindly and chivalrous instincts that dominated him, 
always made him a personal friend of all who 
knew him. From first to last he preserved an in- 
fluence of personality rare in these days; he was 
in this, as in many things, typical of Southern char- 
acter. A man of pure and blameless life, of high 
intellectual quality, the ease and gentleness of life 
seemed rather attractive to him than the strenuous 
endeavor more characteristic of the modern spirit. 
In character, as in appearance, indeed, he was an 
admirable realization of the phrase, "a gentleman 
of the old school." Gifted with a speaking voice, 
the beauty of which has rarely been excelled, en- 
dowed with natural eloquence and with many of 
the graces and much of the power of a popular 
speaker, he became an orator, sympathetic, enter- 
taining, convincing, and one who, without a trace 
of egotism, yet left the impress of his winning 
personality with his speech always in a way that 
bound men to him wherever he was heard. 

With only an occasional public office, a member 

89 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

of Congress, for a time Secretar)- of the Navy, he 
yet was in touch with public affairs through a long 
stretch of his country's history. Considering his 
attainments, his position, the universal welcome 
that awaited him, he did not exercise the influence 
that he might have exercised, had he to his attrac- 
tive and loveable qualities added the strenuousness 
of purpose, the fire of ambition that have animated 
men with fewer gifts and smaller abilities. He 
seems, indeed, to have had a character almost 
w^holly formed under the early conditions of this 
country. The new life that has come in since the 
Civil War, the industrial development, the eager 
push and persistence of modern endeav^or seemed 
to touch him little. He was the stately, polished, 
courteous, easy-going gentleman, genial, lovable, 
high-minded, that might stand as a type of the old- 
en time, as he might in his appearance with his 
well-marked features, his eyes flashing, yet soft 
and kindly, and his crown of silver hair. 



Indianapolis Press. 

It is given to but few men to reach their four 
score and ten of years. When one that does hap- 
pen to be one that has helped to make history, he 
is apt to find his declining days full of a love of 
younger generations, coming to illuminate the hon- 
ors of greatness and the dignity of age. The as- 
perities incident to strenuous activity in the field of 
political strife are softened by time or lost in obliv- 

90 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

ion, and the public delights to dwell upon what 
was best in a life nearing its end. 

Such has been the happy fate of Colonel Richard 
W. Thompson, whose death in Terre Haute at the 
advanced age of ninety years is recorded to-day. 
While he was not among the founders of the Re- 
publican party in Indiana, he was a conspicuous 
Whig leader, and the Whigs have come to be re- 
garded as the predecessors of the Republicans. 
When his own party died with the opening of the 
Civil War, he joined forces with the new organi- 
zation, and has long outlived not only his predeces- 
sors but all his contemporaries in its leadership. 

Wonderfully attractiv^e in his personality, an 
orator of recognized ahWity and a party manager 
of keen intelligence, he arose to large national 
prominence among the politicians of the ante- 
bellum school. And while he shared some of their 
weaknesses, he certainly possessed most of their 
virtues. His most conspicuous serv'ice to his coun- 
tr\' was as Secretary' of the Navy. There he sim- 
plified greatly the system of administration, cut out 
an enormous amount of "dead wood" and as- 
tounded the country by turning back to the Treas- 
un' several millions of dollars as the unexpended 
balance of the naval appropriations. He further 
saved the Government great sums by declining to 
undertake extensive naval construction, at a time 
when the modern warship was in the experimental 
stage and foreign governments were spending lav- 
ishly on ships that afterward proved valueless or 
nearly so. The example of strict economy he gave 

91 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

was even more valuable to the countn^ than the 
sums he saved. 

Since his retirement from active politics he has 
not been idle, and he has contributed not a little 
to the written histor}' of his time. He was a lead- 
er among men in the time of his activity, and was 
one of the few that were not forgotten as time 
advanced. 



Chicago Record. 

The death of Richard W. Thompson of In- 
diana, at the age of 91 brings to a peaceful close a 
life which in many respects is typical of a certain 
school of American public men. Colonel Thomp- 
son's long career covered the period which saw 
the Middle West develop from a wilderness and 
assume civilization. He was from the backwoods, 
as Lincoln was, and throughout his life he held to 
the simplicity, the rugged honesty and directness 
of purpose which marked the backwoods' states- 
man. He had known personally all the presidents 
save Washington, and he had taken an active inter- 
est in the political affairs of his country from his 
earliest manhood. The public places he held he 
filled with credit and distinction, and it is a sign of 
his absolute disinterestedness that he declined more 
posts than he accepted. During the later years of 
his life he had the satisfaction of knowing that he 
had not only the respect but the affectionate regard 
of all his countrymen. 

Up to the time of his last sickness he took a 

92 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

deep interest in public affairs, sitting in the national 
conventions of his party and aiding with tongue 
and pen in the forming of public opinion. As a 
frequent and valued contributor to its columns in 
past years, The Record bears testimony to his high 
motives, his love of truth and his earnest desire to 
assist that cause which he deemed to be the right 
one. 



Chicazo Inter Ocean. 

It is the large, fresh-hearted people, the busy- 
minded people, the people whose souls go out of 
and beyond themselves and take "all knowledge 
for their business," that endure. In Its way, the 
personal memoirs of Charles Talleyrand, Prince 
Benevento and counselor of republics, monarchies 
and empires of France, is one of the most remark- 
able of books. One peculiarity of the work Is that 
there Is a foot note with a brief biographical notice 
of each person mentioned and all that are men- 
tioned were celebrities and powers In their day. 
Even a careless reader will be Impressed by the 
longevity of by far the greater part of the generals, 
authors, diplomats, statesmen and financiers of the 
first water who were of sufficient Importance to 
come into or pass across the orbit of the supreme 
diplomat of this age, if not of all ages. Talleyrand 
himself died May 17, 1838, at the age of 84. Bis- 
marck at 83, and Von Moltke at 91. A recent 
writer in the Forum has fixed 68 years and 8 
months as the average of the life of the best 

93 



RICHARD \V. THOMPSON 

thinkers and most active human factors of the 
present century. 

There now Hes, apparently at the point of death, 
in Indiana, a man who was active in politics before 
many a one whose hair is now gray was born. 
Richard Wigginton Thompson was acting presi- 
dent of the Senate of Indiana in 1838, which is a 
year before the discover)' and publication of 
Swarthout's famous robbery of the national treas- 
ury. He was in Congress seven years before the 
outbreak of the Mexican War. He refused the 
offer of Ambassador to Austria when it was ten- 
dered to him by President Taylor. He was one of 
the presidential electors who voted for William 
Henry Harrison. He declined office under Presi- 
dent Fillmore, and again under President Lincoln. 
He was 68 years of age when he assumed the 
arduous duties of Secretary of the Navy under 
President Hayes. 

That time had not weakened his bodily vigor 
was dem.onstrated by the energy that he displayed 
in the discharge of the multitudinous and tiresome 
details of his office. That it had not impaired his 
mental vision is proved by his recommendation of 
that naval policy which now is admitted to be abso- 
lutely necessary to the maintenance of our com- 
mercial supremacy. To use his own language, he 
saw clearly "that it is our duty to build the best 
ships in the world. There can be no limits to our 
efforts in that direction. The large governments 
of the world are covering the seas with their 
fighting material, and if we are to have a merchant 

94 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

marine we must have a navy to protect it. We 
must legislate for our merchant marine, whether by 
subsidies or discriminating duties. Our flag should 
be on the commercial highways of every sea, and 
our fighting boats should be about to protect 
them." He was far in advance of many a states- 
man of his time. 

Four years ago, then being 86 years of age, Mr. 
Thompson presided over the Republican conven- 
tion of Indiana, and a few weeks later acted as 
delegate to the National Convention. What a 
lesson his life teaches to our young men. Patriot- 
ism conduces to longevity; the active mind stimu- 
lates and preserves a healthy body, or strengthens 
a feeble one in its constant struggle against the 
encroachments of disease. Of wisdom Solomon 
said: "In her right hand are riches and length of 
days." 



Chicago Journal. 

With the passing of "Uncle Dick" Thompson, 
Indiana lost its grand old man, and the country 
lost a representative of the highest type of man- 
hood its public life has produced. It is a sufficient 
justification of this nation's existence that it has 
made men like him. 

To serve the public faithfully where one can, to 
be a genial comrade and kindly neighbor, to be 
wise in council, strong in friendship, and gentle in 
home, to enjoy the warm affection of the people of 

95 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

one's state, and the respect of the Nation's besides, 
and to die at the age of four score and ten honora- 
ble years, probably means that one has been about 
the best that one can be and enjoyed about the best 
life had to give. So lived and died "Uncle Dick" 
Thompson. There is no reason to mourn him. 
His end was not so much death as completion, and 
the closing of a life like that calls not for a tear, 
but a smile. 



Chicago Evening Post. 

Richard W. Thompson, or, as he was univer- 
sally known, "Uncle Dick" Thompson, who died 
early this morning at his home in Terre Haute, 
Indiana, was one of the most interesting personal- 
ities this country has produced. He had known 
every President of the United States except Wash- 
ington, and was intimately acquainted with many 
of them and exerted a great influence in many 
ways. Probably no other man continuously figured 
in politics for so many years. He developed a 
deep interest in the subject at the age of 20, and, 
as he himself put it, decided to retire when he en- 
tered his ninetieth year. Naturally, he was not 
actively engaged in politics during the last years of 
his life, having finished his official career in 1881 
as Secretary of the Navy under President Hayes, 
but so long as his health and strength would permit 
he gave his services and his counsel to his party 
and his country. 

96 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

St. Louis Globe Democrat. 

Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, whose 
death has just taken place, was distinguished 
among his countrymen of to-day in many particu- 
lars. He was the last eminent survivor of the 
"year of great babies" — 1809 — the year which 
produced Lincoln, Hamlin, Gladstone, Robert C. 
Winthrop, Darwin, Oliver Wendall Holmes, Ten- 
nyson and others who won fame in many fields. 
Indiana sent him to its legislature In 1834, and his 
public life may be said to have begun at that time. 
It elected him to the National House of Represent- 
atives in I 840. No other American who has been 
alive in recent years was in either branch of Con- 
gress as far back as that, but ex-Governor Alex- 
ander Ramsey, of Minnesota, who is still alive, en- 
tered Congress two years later. Thompson, there- 
fore, was in Congress fourteen years before the 
notably long political career of John Sherman, 
which was ended by resignation a little over a year 
ago, and of Justin S. Morrill, which was closed by 
death early in 1899, began. 

To the popular mind Lincoln appears to be a 
personage of a generation or two ago, as more 
than a third of a century has passed since his 
death. If alive to-day, however, Lincoln would 
be only four months older than Thompson was at 
his death. Gladstone's life, even In a country 
which has seen many memorably long political ca- 
reers, held a high place in the scale of longevity, 
yet if Gladstone were alive to this day he would 
be more than half a year younger than the Indian- 

97 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

ian whose death has just taken place. Thompson 
was a presidential elector in 1840, or sixty years 
ago, and cast his vote for William Henry Harri- 
son. The United States at that time had only 17,- 
000,000 inhabitants, and its Western boundary 
was the Sabine, the Red and Arkansas rivers and 
the Rocky mountains. Texas, California, Ore- 
gon, Washington and several other states and two 
territories have been added to the national domain 
since that time, exclusive of Alaska and the more 
recent acquisitions, and the population of the coun- 
try has more than quadrupled. 

Comparatively few public offices were held by 
the deceased Indianian, and the actual duration of 
his public service was not long. His only import- 
ant national posts were Representative in Congress 
and Secretary of the Navy, the last of which offices 
he held in the cabinet of President Hayes. No 
other man of his day, however, declined so many 
important posts, administrative and diplomatic, 
tendered by presidents as he did. Among the 
presidents who offered him offices which he did not 
accept were Taylor, Lincoln and Grant. As a 
Whig at the outset in his active life and as a Re- 
publican ever since the Republican part>' was 
founded, he wrote more platforms of his own 
state and assisted in writing more national plat- 
forms than any other American who ever lived. 
He personally saw every president of the United 
States except Washington and the first Adams, 
and was on terms of intimacy with many of them. 
In every presidential canvass from that of 1832, 

98 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

when he took the stump for Clay, he made 
speeches, even in that of 1896, in which year he 
was a delegate to the St. Louis Convention. A 
great deal of history has been made in the United 
States since Richard W. Thompson first entered 
national station sixty years ago, and he assisted in 
making a considerable part of it. 



Chicago Tribune. 

He nominated Morton for the presidency in 
1876, and in 1882, at Minneapolis, when he was 
63 years old, he performed the same office for 
Benjamin Harrison. Mr. Thompson has another 
claim to lasting distinction, in that he declined 
offers of more important offices than almost any 
other man ever prominent in public life. Presi- 
dent Taylor offered him the mission to Austria; 
President Fillmore wanted to make him Recorder 
of the General Land Office; President Lincoln 
pressed him to accept a seat on the bench of the 
Court of Claims. But for one reason or another, 
Mr. Thompson accepted none of them. The 
passing of "Dick" Thompson marks the close of 
an epoch in the political history of the country. 
He was the last survivor of the old school of 
public men who grew up in the back woods and 
went from the log cabin to the halls of legislature. 
He was the last link in the chain which bound the 
fathers of the republic to the fourth generation of 
their sons. 

99 

LOFCc 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Kansas City Star. 

It is a wonderful commentar>' on the growth of 
the United States, whose population is rapidly 
nearing 80,000,000, that Richard W. Thompson, 
who died at Terre Haute, Indiana, on Friday, has 
seen all the presidents of the American Republic 
with the exception of two, — Washington and 
Adams. Thus the history' of the greatest nation 
on the globe has been comprised almost within the 
lifetime of one man. 



Western Christian Advocate, Cincinnati. 

This distinguished American died in Terre 
Haute, Indiana, shortly after midnight, February 
9th. Had he lived until June 9th, prox., he would 
have been ninety-one. He was a remarkable bond 
uniting the past and the present. Think of it — he 
had seen all the presidents excepting Washington 
and John Adams. He was a civic wonder, as 
appears from this summary of his career by a 
correspondent of the Indianapolis Journal, writ- 
ten two years ago, in which he is described as "a 
man who saw Thomas Jefferson, was dandled on 
the knees of James Madison, whose boyish head 
was patted by Monroe, who saw John Quincy 
Adams when he was in the White House, and was 
serving with him in Congress when he dropped 
dead in the House of Representatives. This man 
was given political advice when he started out in 
life by Andrew Jackson. He knew Martin Van 

100 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Buren. He was one of the Presidential Electors 
who put William Henry Harrison in the Execu- 
tive Mansion, and he refused the mission to Aus- 
tria when it was offered to him by President Taylor. 
He had close associations with Fillmore, He was 
a friend of Franklin Pierce, and he knew well 
James Buchanan. He served in Congress with 
Abraham Lincoln, and during the latter's presi- 
dency he was his trusted friend. He knew John- 
son, was a friend of Grant's, and during the Pres- 
idency of Hayes he was the Secretary of the Navy. 
With the exception of George Washington and 
John Adams, he has associated with every Presi- 
dent of the United States, so that to-day he forms, 
as it were, a bridge between the past and the pres- 
ent." 

Such a career stamps him an extraordinary man, 
and justifies the love and admiration bestowed 
upon him by his fellow Indianians. He began 
his public life in 1834; was the last survivor of 
the Congress of 1841; and sat side by side with 
Lincoln in the Congress of 1849. Four presi- 
dents tendered him important official positions; 
and he resigned as Secretary of the Navy to ac- 
cept from Ferdinand de Lesseps the presidency 
for America of the Panama Canal Commission. 

In politics he was a Whig until that party 
merged into the Republican, and became the party 
for the preservation of the Union, when he iden- 
tified himself with its fortunes. His ability as an 
orator, and his fidelity to his party convictions 
made him a trusted and honored leader. Even 

101 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

his political antagonists admired his strength and 
manhood. 

In religion he was a Methodist Episcopalian, 
and lived and died in the communion of our 
Church. * * * pjg ^^,jjg p^gj. sixty-eight 

when President Hayes made him Secretary of the 
Navy, and pronounced him just entering his prime. 
Himself attributed his long life and mental viril- 
ity to his temperate habits. 

Rev. David H. Moore, D. D., Editor. 



Lafayette Journal. 

The death of Richard W. Thompson calls to 
mind the fact that he was born in "The great 
year." In 1809 Lincoln saw the light, as did 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, on this side of the water, 
and Gladstone, Prof. Blackie, and Tennvson in 
Great Britain. These are but a few of the many 
whose lives began within that tivelve-month, — 
many of whom reached fame. And he outlived 
all these mentioned. Few indeed are those still 
living who entered life with Colonel Thompson. 

It was a great year in history. The "Enforc- 
ing Act" was passed by the American Congress in 
1809, providing heav^y penalties for evasions on 
the Embargo Act. By its provisions it became un- 
lawful to export any goods from the United 
States, and New England particularly suffered 
very grievously. Also in this year the detested 
Embargo Act was removed as to all countries ex- 

102 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

cepting Great Britain and France. Up until the 
Civil War there never was a subject which so 
divided the country. 

In that year the new territory of Illinois was 
admitted; and in the Eastern States a great stride 
toward the modern public school system was made. 

In Europe Napoleon began his second war 
against Austria, and won the great battle of Wa- 
gram. In that same year he divorced Josephine. 
He was at the zenith of his career, — at the turn- 
ing, which ended at Waterloo and St. Helena. 



Rockville Tribune. 

After the campaign of 1856 Colonel Thomp- 
son never appeared as a candidate. He was ap- 
pointed Provost Marshal for this Congressional 
District. His selection by President Hayes as Sec- 
retary of the Navy was his last and greatest public 
office. His administration of this important 
office was eminently satisfactory to the public. 

It was as an orator that Richard W. Thompson 
excelled most of his contemporaries. All the 
older readers of the Tribune will remember his 
eloquent discourses on the stump or upon public 
occasions. The writer recalls a Fourth of July 
oration made by Colonel Thompson in Rockville 
in 1875. ^t "^^^^ ^ ^^^ production in a literary 
sense, but above all was the voice and presence of 
the orator. The impressions made by that speech 

103 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

upon the boy who heard it were such as are never 
forgotten. 

The death of Colonel Thompson brings sad- 
ness to all. His life went back to the infancy of 
the Republic. He had visited Jefferson at Monti- 
cello. He had seen and talked with ever>^ presi- 
dent of the United States since 1800. He was the 
last of an age of public men who may well be 
called heroic. 



Sullivan Times. 

For fifty years Colonel Thompson was a con- 
spicuous character in all the conventions of the 
Whig and Republican parties. Though he was 
a partisan and his great success was political, his 
honesty and high character always gained for 
him the respect of men belonging to all parties. 



Anderson Bulletin. 

The venerable Colonel "Dick" Thompson is 
dead. He was one of the old-time public men. 
A Republican in politics he held many honorable 
positions and retired to private life with an un- 
spotted record. 



Sullivan Union. 

"L'ncic Dick" as wc all called him. because we 

104 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

loved him and revered him, was one of the best 
men that ever Hved. He was generous to a fault 
and a kind neighbor and friend. His death is a 
source of much regret to us all, though he had 
been blessed with long years, and had reached the 
age when the hand of death could not longer be 
stayed. 



Richmond Item. 

In the death of Richard Thompson, Indiana 
loses her "grand old man," and the Republican 
party of the state and nation one of its truest and 
purest of able leaders. 



Greensburg Review. 

The death of the venerable Colonel R. W. 
Thompson removes an historic figure from the 
activities of life. For years Colonel Thompson 
had been a prominent citizen, a political leader, a 
giant am.ong men, and Indiana was always proud 
of him. 



Rockville Republican. 

In the death of Colonel R. W. Thompson, In- 
diana loses one of her best known and noblest 
men. Few of the country were wider known and 
to none has been given the privilege of such long 

105 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

life while standing so prominently in the broad 
light of public life. No man in the country has 
met and intimately known so many presidents 
and prominent men as he. During his active days 
he was associated with the great leaders of thought 
and influence, and stranger than all he had their 
confidence and respect to a degree not shared by 
others. 



Bloomfield News. 

Indiana has lost one of her noblest sons; the 
Republican party one of its most devoted, unsel- 
fish and faithful workers, and the people a friend, 
long-tried and ever-faithful. 



Sullivan Deinocrat. 

For fifty years Colonel Thompson was a con- 
spicuous character in all the conventions of the 
Whig and Republican parties. 



Muncie Herald. 

The death of Richard W. Thompson removes 
a distinguished character from the state. Ripe in 
years and experience he more than filled the al- 
lotted span of life vouchsafed to man. 

io6 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Ft. Wayne News. 

Probably no American has so many acquaint- 
ances among distinguished statesmen as had this 
grand old man, whose personal recollections of 
public men run back to the days of Webster and 
Clay. 



South Bend Tribune. 

Colonel Thompson was the first official of the 
Government to recommend an increase in the navy. 

* * * The old Secretary lived to see his 
recommendations carried out and his fondest 
hopes realized. 



Crawfordsville Journal. 

By the death of Colonel Richard W. Thomp- 
son, Indiana loses one of her oldest and best citi- 
zens, the Republican party one of its most devoted 
and unselfish workers, and the people a friend 
long-tried and ever-faithful. 



South Bend Times. 

Although he participated in many fierce politi- 
cal contests and held many positions of trust and 
responsibility, not a word of suspicion was ever 

107 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

breathed against him. Scarcely any higher enco- 
mium could be paid to a public man than this. 



New Albany Ledger. 

His life was a pure and clean one, — his example 
as a citizen and a Christian, worthy of the emula- 
tion of all. 



Marion News. 

Mentally he was a power. His integrity was 
real; his purpose was high and his ambition was 
pure and thoughtful. Indiana should honor his 
memory. 



ConncrsviUe News. 

He lived under every administration in the his- 
tory of our country, save two; he filled many po- 
sitions of responsibility, and he was a man of high 
attainments. 



Evansvillc Journal. 

The death of Colonel Richard W. Thompson 
removes from the world of action one of the pur- 
est men who ever entered public life and rose to 
eminence in the nation. 

108 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Newcastle Press. 

To write a fitting obituary of Colonel Thomp- 
son would be to write a history of Indiana, with 
which state, its growth and its prosperity, he has 
been closely identified ever since 1831. 



Lafayette Courier. 

His life was crowded with memories of things 
known to others only through history. 



Evansville Courier. 

It is a sufficient justification of this nation's ex- 
istence that it has made men like him. 



Columbus Republican. 

He was a man of strong convictions, of un- 
questioned integrity and unsullied character. 



Marion Chronicle. 

Full of years and honors he passes to his re- 
ward, beloved not only by the State but by the 
Nation. 

109 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Goshen Times. 

He was the last link in the chain that bound 
the fathers of the republic to the fourth genera- 
tion of their sons. 



South Bend News. 

The measure of his life was full to overflow- 
ing and there was little if anything left to be de- 
sired by him. 



Rushville Republican. 
He had a warm place in all Hoosier hearts. 



Albany Tribune. 
He was an influential leader, always conserva- 



tive. 



Lafayette Times. 

Colonel Thompson was a political land-mark 
in Indiana. 



Greenfield Tribune. 

The death removes one of Indiana's most con- 
spicuous citizens. 

no 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Muncie Times. 

His death Is the completion of a well-rounded 
and well-balanced life. 



Knightstoivn Journal. 

His old age was crowned with rewards earned 
,in a well-spent life. 



Lafayette Leader. 

His voice was ringing, his sentences well- 
rounded, and his manner convincing. 



Attica Ledger. 

He exerted an influence for the right and has 
been an honor to his country and his state. 



Ill 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE BAR 



Proceedings of the Bar Meeting 

VIGO COUNTY BAR MEETING. 

February 12, igoo. 

Hon. James E. Piety. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — At a meeting of the 
local bar on last Friday, Judge Jordan, of the State 
Supreme Court, was selected as chairman of this 
meeting, and Mr. A. M. Higgins was selected as 
secretary of the meeting. It gives me pleasure to 
introduce to you Judge Jordan. 

Judge James H. Jordan. 

Gentlemen : I sincerely thank you for the honor 
conferred in selecting me to preside over this meeting 
of the Bar. As you are aware, we have assembled on 
this sad occasion to pay a tribute of respect to the 
memory of our deceased brother, — a man who was dis- 
tinguished as a lawyer, statesman, and an orator for 
over a period of fifty years. Colonel Thompson at the 
time of his death was probably the oldest lawyer in 
this State. In fact, it may be said that he came down 
to those here assembled from a former generation. 
The time which God allotted to his illustrious life al- 
most covered a period of three generations. He had 
already become noted and distinguished for his emi- 
nent services before many of us who are now fast ap- 
proaching the sunset of life, were born. It is useless 
to assert that which must be a well recognized fact, 

115 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

that Colonel Thompson in a word was a great man, 
and one whose greatness and goodness grew as he 
advanced in life. Not only was he an associate of such 
eminent men as Lincoln and Morton, but he was their 
peer in intellect and statesmanship. It may certainly 
be affirmed that the people of this State, irrespective 
of party, among whom Colonel Thompson has moved 
and lived and by whom he has been so favorably known 
for many years, were and are proud of his distin- 
guished services and illustrious character. All will now 
sincerely mourn and regret the death of this man who, 
in his life w-as true to his country, true to himself, 
and true to the age in which he lived. May his ser- 
vices in public life, and his patriotism in war be an in- 
spiration to us all, and may he in the future be held, 
as he undoubtedly will be, in sacred remembrance by 
our people in general. 

With these few remarks, gentlemen, this meeting is 
now open for your consideration. 

The first on the program will be the report of The 
Committee on Resolutions. 

Judge S. B. Davis. 

The committee tendered as the sentiment of the Bar 
of Terre Haute and of Indiana the following mem- 
orial to our departed brother and friend : 

In Memoriam. 

Colonel Richard W. Thompson early last Friday 
morning peacefully passed from this mortal life and 
from the scenes of long years of useful activity, to join 
the invisible company of many illustrious contempora- 
ries who preceded him, and 

ii6 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

We, the Bar of Vigo County, come together with 
sorrowing hearts to pay our tribute of love to him 
whose eloquent speech, now hushed, has for three 
scores of years swayed multitudes of people, and whose 
silvery voice and burning words has stirred our souls 
and have been an inspiration, teaching us the deeper 
meaning of life. 

It is unnecessary to relate here the achievements of 
his unique and unusual life or to dwell upon the traits 
of character which have endeared him to his country- 
men, for his life is an open book, part of the record of 
our country, known and read by all men. 

While we sorrow because he is no longer with us, 
we feel a deep pride that he was a member of this Bar, 
that he was our townsman, our neighbor, our friend. 
How-ever, his name and fame belong not to us alone, 
but are the common heritage of the American people. 

By reason of his great public services ; whether on 
the bench as Circuit Judge, or United States Provost 
Marshal during the stirring times of the Civil War, 
or as Representative in the Halls of Congress, or in the 
President's Cabinet, he was ever equal to the occasion, 
and graced every position by his learning and cul- 
ture; thus he has, in every calling of life, left his 
impress and contributed a goodly part to the destinies 
and o-lories of our Country. 

By his facile pen and his public utterances, he has 
made rich contributions to the literature of the people 
whereby he has touched the hearts and lives of all 
classes, so that we have a nation of mourners to join 
us in our tribute of esteem. By his temperate and con- 

117 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

sistent life, he added thereto perhaps a score of years 
and survived all his contemporaries in Congress and in 
the administration of President Hayes, in which he 
bore so honorable a part. He was the oldest member 
of the Indiana Bar, and has for years been the acknow- 
ledged leader of the Republican party of Indiana and 
has not failed for half a century to contribute his share 
toward formulating and shaping the policy of his 
party in the great councils of the Nation. 

But his opponents loved him for his magnanimity 
and breadth, his fairness and unfailing courtesy. The 
aged loved him for his wisdom ; the strong and active 
loved him for what he has wrought ; the pious loved 
him for his Christian virtue ; and the children loved 
him for the sweetness and gentleness of his nature : 
so it is hard to conceive of a man in this generation 
who will be more tmiversally or more truly mourned 
than he whom we this day bear to his last resting place. 
"Know ye not that this day a Prince and a great man 
has fallen ?" 

Resolved — That in their great grief we extend to 
the sorrowing family our heartfelt sympathy ; 

Resolved — Further, that this memorial be spread at 
length on the Order Books of the Supreme Court of 
the State and of the Circuit and Superior Courts of 
this County as a perpetual testimony of our esteem, 
and that copies hereof be furnished to the family and 
to the public press. 

A. B. Carlton, Wm. Eggleston, 

Thomas B. Long, J. Jump, 

S. B. Davis, G. W. Paris, 

Committee. 

ii8 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Judge Davis : Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption 
of the report. 

Honorable S. C. Stimson : Mr. Chairman, I second 
the motion, the adoption of the report. 

Judge Jordan : It is moved and seconded that the 
memorial prepared by your committee be adopted. Be- 
fore we take a vote on this, we have a number of dis- 
tinguished gentlemen here from whom this meeting 
will no doubt be pleased to hear on this occasion and 
the resolutions may be considered pending until after- 
wards when we will take a vote on the same. 

I will first call upon the Honorable T. B. Long. 

Judge Davis: Mr. Chairman, before Judge Long 
begins his address. Judge Carlton, who was intimately 
acquainted with Colonel Thompson, probably longer 
than any one present, was to have spoken of these reso- 
lutions, but on account of his lack of physical strength, 
he asked me to excuse him at this point. 

Hon. Thomas B. Long. 

Mr. Chairman and Brethren of the Bar : There 
are events innumerable in human life, whether affect- 
ing individual man or persons combined in trades or 
professions ; in associations or fraternities, in States 
or Nations, which stand out in striking contrast with 
the steadily moving current of affairs, and become 
glowing or sombre pictures in a limited or broadened 
view, as their effects may be personal, local or national. 
If the subject be of success and victory, the canvass 
is filled with brilliant and glowing colors ; if it be of de- 
feat and death, the lights are subdued and the shad- 
ows are deepened. If it be of a long career, filled with 

119 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

brilliant achievements of the intellect, crowned with 
the accomplished promptings of the noble and generous 
heart, and replete with the quiet victories of humanity 
and philanthropy — for "peace hath her victories no 
less renowned than war" — even though the picture 
springs to view with the death of its principal actor, 
yet is it then a work combining all the features of 
the two already described, full of color and brilliancy 
and light which even the incident of death will not 
subdue, but rather chasten and harmonize into a per- 
fect and complete scene. It is such a picture that 
stands before our mental vision this morning; it is 
such a scene that will be suspended on the walls of the 
gallery of our memories to be visited often in the nearer 
future, and to be recalled, from time to time, until the 
latest period in the life of the youngest attendant on 
this occasion. 

The Terre Haute Bar is one of the oldest oragniza- 
tions of its kind in Indiana, almost co-existent with 
the formation of the State itself. As a consequence of 
this fact, we have, by our several predecessors of an 
earlier day and in our present existing componency 
been often called together to express our deep appreci- 
ation of the merits and abilities of those of our number 
who have been summoned to the great hereafter, and 
to lay our fronds of ivy and our wreathes of immor- 
telles upon breasts no longer throbbing to our touch, 
and to look our last upon eyes forever closed upon the 
waning light of this world, and upon the stilled life 
never more to open with the voice of friendship, nor 
thrill us with strains of accustomed and familiar elo- 
quence. 

120 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

With a similar purpose, and in profound sorrow, we 
now assemble to express the sense of our irreparable 
loss in the death of the oldest and, to the last, most 
cherished member of our Association, as well as one of 
the oldest, ablest, and most honored of our State citi- 
zenship, Honorable Richard W. Thompson, who peace- 
fully breathed his life away on the early morning of 
Friday last. Although he had far exceeded the scrip- 
tural limit of human life, and had even passed a decade 
beyond the point the Psalmist declares to be that of 
"but labor and sorrow" yet to him it was not so; but 
his rounded years were, until almost the last day, fill- 
ed with peace, contentment and joy. 

Having read law under his tuition and direction, 
spent several years in his office, had other associations 
and interests with him, followed by uninterrupted 
years of undisturbed and earnest friendship with this 
great and good man, I am asked, and naturally expect- 
ed, to say something on the present occasion. 

When I first knew Colonel Thompson, he had long 
passed through his early — his Congressional — cam- 
paigns, both successful, with Honorable John W. 
Davis, and Josephus Wright, afterwards Governor of 
Indiana, and still later United States Minister to Ber- 
lin. His first great oratorical triumph had been ac- 
complished in this manner: Honorable Daniel Web- 
ster had an appointment to address a mass meeting of 
the Whigs in Monument Square in the City of Balti- 
more, and finding at the last moment that he could not 
fill it, he sent young Thompson, whose oratorical abili- 
ties had attracted his admiration, to speak in his place. 
The disappointment of the great audience he then 

121 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

faced was so obvious as for a time to threaten his com- 
pelled withdrawal, but a few marked and striking ex- 
pressions attracted favorable attention, after which he 
held and carried the vast multitude through several 
hours of one of the long speeches of that period, end- 
ing in a strain of eloquence so great that, at its con- 
clusion, he was carried on the shoulders of his hearers 
to his hotel, and subsequently presented with a silver 
goblet, engraved with the date and scene of this signal 
triumph. He had also successfully carried out the 
well-known removal of the Menominee Indians, and 
was prosecuting in Congress his long and improperly 
contested claim for that important service ; and was 
then pursuing a well-established practice in the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. I know, in this 
connection, of his preparation of an important brief 
as a labor assigned to him by his associate counsel 
elsewhere, because I took the whole of it down from 
his dictation, while he was pacing back and forth over 
his office floor. It was to be sent to them to be filed in 
the cause if they regarded it as covering the case ; if 
not, to be returned to him ; and it never came back. 
The summer months during this period were large- 
ly spent at home ; and the afternoon hours in his office 
at the corner of Main and Fourth Streets witnessed 
an almost daily intellectual symposium of congenial 
spirits, among whom were Father Lalumiere, Colonel 
Thomas Dowling, Lucius H. Rice. Jacob H. Hager, 
and occasionally Colonel William K. Edwards and 
Charles Cruft, afterwards an efficient General in the 
war of the Rebellion. Then, indeed, the eloquence of 
social discussion prevailed ; the shafts of motherwit, 

122 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

sharp but harmless, keen but untouched with the slight- 
est stain of malice, were freely sped and always struck 
the mark ; and at every sitting, there continually 
abounded "a feast of reason and a flow of soul." 
These meetings could not fail to remind one of the 
"Noctes Ambroseanas," in which Christopher North, 
and the Ettrick Shepherd, and Timothy Tickler, were 
some of the dramatic personals in the literature of 
Scotland three quarters of a century ago. 

I have many, many reminiscences of Colonel 
Thompson — both of earlier and later dates — which, if 
I should speak of them as they suddenly come to 
mind, without chronological sequence or guide, would 
make me talk to you for hours ; and it was the fear of 
transcending a tasteful limit that induced me to control 
myself with the pen, which is always more easily kept 
in check than is that somewhat impulsive member, 
the tongue. I remember the great speech made by 
him, upon his own appointment, on the subject of slav- 
ery, and on the very spot where we are now assembled. 
During a whole summer afternoon he kept the throng 
that crowded the court room more completely enthrall- 
ed with his matchless eloquence, than Coleridge's An- 
cient Mariner ever held "the w^edding guest" "with 
his glittering eye." The great events of future years 
had not dawnd upon the minds of the wisest men and 
the greatest statesmen of that day. That speech was 
doubtless prompted largely by constitutional considera- 
tions and the political aspects of the times, and was 
silently ignored by the orator himself long before the 
ideas implied in the popular phrases, "property rights," 
"compacts," and "constitutional guarantees," as ap- 

123 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

plied to traffic in human labor, and the bondage of hu- 
man life, had passed through the fiery crucible of civil 
war into a gold a thousand times purer than any the 
ancient alchemists ever dreamed of. I remember, and 
so do we all, the many great speeches he was assigned 
to make at the openings of grand political campaigns, 
— speeches which outlined the plans of approaching con- 
tests, and have ever since been denominated in the 
political dictionary as the "Key-notes" of action. And 
we all remember how frequently he has presided over 
political State Conventions, and then again how often 
he has written or dictated platforms, under whose out- 
lines of principles the fierce campaigns of the past 
have been fought, sometimes to victory, sometimes to 
defeat. 

We must not forget that this busy man, but 
great student, too diligent to remain idle a moment, 
turned his attention at times from oratory to literature, 
producing first a book, "The Papacy and the Civil 
Power," which awakened some controversy, and pos- 
sibly some feeling on the part of one of the great 
Churches of the world, but the impartial critic will 
scarcely say that his subject was unfairly handled, or 
that he failed to sustain his positions by theological 
authorities of the highest standard. When it is re- 
membered that the author was a conscientious mem- 
ber of the numerically next greatest church in the 
Christian world — and in actual greatness the peer of 
any — his right, and possible duty, to write this book 
will not be questioned. That antagonism to it led to 
his writing another book upon the same general sub- 
ject, "The Footprints of the Jesuits," was something 

124 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

that seemed necessarily to follow the controversies en- 
gendered by the first. My knowledge of the character 
of Colonel Thompson impels me to declare that I firm- 
ly believe that religious intolerance had no place in his 
broad mind, no lodgment in his great and noble soul. 
That this is true is probably sufficiently proved by his 
firm, unbroken, endearing friendship for Father La- 
lumiere, — already spoken of — a friendship that endur- 
ed to the very last moments of the life of that excellent 
Priest, and which doubtless remained a fragrant mem- 
ory in the mind of the survivor until his own last hour 
had come. I am also firmly convinced that it was the 
politics of Catholicism — as it had existed in Europe 
and not in America — that led to the author's research 
and to the publication of these books ; for there is no 
doubt in my mind that Colonel Thompson has at all 
times been more thoroughly equipped in the science 
of European politics which are necessarily the politics 
of all the Eastern Hemisphere — than almost any per- 
son in the whole country. 

Further in the line of authorship, his efforts in the 
science of theology were followed in the domain of po- 
litical economy by his hand book upon the "tariff," 
and this in turn, in the field of History and Biography 
combined, by his delightful work in two splendid vol- 
umes, entitled "Recollections of the Presidents," a 
book that he alone of all men then living could write, 
and by which he bequeathed to posterity a series of 
highly interesting and wonderfully pleasing memories 
which, but for these last treasures brought forth from 
the teeming chambers of his memory, would have been 
forever lost to the world. 

125 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

But I find even now, Mr. Chairman, that I must 
omit almost numberless points upon which I would 
be glad to dwell ; his strikingly great achievements here 
and elsewhere in the forums which have beer the scenes 
of our own life labors ; his great efforts — mostly defen- 
sive — in the Sill-Thompson, the Dr. Newland, the Fair- 
brother, the Tabscott, murder cases, and others that 
may not for the moment occur to me. These mere tri- 
umphs in the line of our professional life ; we know 
of them and they may indeed be passed. But with 
more regret must I hasten over the many great public 
trusts so faithfully administered by our distinguished 
friend and brother, — especially and notably his admin- 
istration of the great portfolio of Secretary of the 
Navy, in which he foresaw, with no power at hand 
to remedy, the weakness of that branch of our defen- 
sive service, without the correction of which, in more 
auspicious times, our country would not now be occu- 
pying the proud position among the powers of the 
world its recent achievements have so gloriously 
gained it. 

Under different circumstances I would not think of 
closing even so brief a testimonial as this without 
rounding it into symmetry by some estimate of the 
powers, and some analysis of the character, of so great 
a subject as the one we are now considering : but in 
view of what has been already told, and what must yet 
be said by our distinguished visitors and brethren of 
the Bar at large, and the limited time within which all 
this must be accomplished. I am reminded of the ex- 
cuse which Aeneas gave to his disguised mother for 

126 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

not recounting the misfortunes through which he had 
so recently passed : 

"If I were from the first to tell the tale, 

And time more yours to hear the many deeds, 

The evening star would close the gates of heaven 
Upon the expiring day ere I were done." 

Judge Jordan : I have the pleasure of announcing 
the next speaker on this occasion, 

Governor James A. Mount. 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Bar, and 
Ladies and Gentlemen : It seems but a brief period 
since in this room we paid the last tribute of respect to 
another citizen of this city, and an honored citizen of 
this commonwealth, Senator Voorhees. We meet today 
to pay the last tribute of respect to a man who had pass- 
ed the four score years and ten, a man who, during that 
long period, endeared himself to all with whom he was 
brought in contact. He was loved in the home, he 
was revered in this city, he was honored in this great 
State, and in the Nation, and as we face his eventful 
life, fraught with such eminence, I feel it dangerous 
for me to attempt to speak without confining myself 
briefly by some written remarks, for I am aware of the 
many speakers and the danger of entrenching upon 
your time, and hence I will read a few brief sentences 
in tribute to this great man. 

In the brief time that has been allotted to me, no 
words that I can command will fittingly express Indi- 
ana's appreciation of the life and public services of her 

127 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

dead patriarch. No man of our State has ever attained 
and held National prominence as long as Colonel 
Richard W. Thompson. He was the last connecting 
link between the days of Webster, Clay and Calhoun, 
with whom he served in the National Congress. He 
achieved distinction and won honor as a statesman, 
orator, author, and jurist. His personal recollections 
of sixteen Presidents, his broad acquaintance and con- 
tact with men of National prominence, gave to him a 
breadth of opportunity which has not, perhaps, been en- 
joyed by another in our country's history. He was a 
party leader, without political enemies. He won the 
confidence of men by the persuasive power of his logic 
and reason. From his political life those who aspire 
to be factors in public affairs may learn lessons of 
wisdom and be taught that justice and fairness in ar- 
gument win, while misrepresentation and innuendo 
only repel. 

"He was a tall man, sun-crowned ; 

Who lived above the fog, 
In public duty and in private thinking." 

His character is indelibly stamped upon the pillars 
of the age. He was dignified and scholarly, yet affable 
and companionable. 

"Statesman, yet friend to Truth ; 

In soul sincere, in action faithful, 
In honor clear." 

Colonel Thompson was a wise man, devoted to duty, 
and his daily life and conscience were sanctioned by 
the smile of an approving God. 

During a conversation not long ago, he said to me : 

128 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

"When my work is done I will be glad to go. To me 
it will be but falling asleep to wake up in heaven." 

The "hoary head," was to him, "a crown of glory," 
for "his steps were found in the ways of righteousness." 
His glory-crowned brow was a benediction to all who 
were favored with his presence. 

While winter adorned his temples, eternal Spring 
reigned in his loving heart. His was a noble spirit 
and a busy life. The mildew of selfishness never 
blighted the impulse of his generous nature. 

Such men cannot die. They live in our memories ; 
they inspire our lives. "He, being dead, yet speaketh." 

He loved children, and, in turn, he was beloved by 
them. Students sought him ; women honored him. 
Citizens of your community manifested a devoted rev- 
erence for him, and the people of our great State and 
Nation honored him. 

"He was not born to shame ; 
Upon his brow shame was ashamed to sit ; 
For 'tis a throne where honor may be crowned. 
Sole monarch of the universe." 

Colonel Thompson's useful career, his long life, has 
closed. He rests from his work well done. "For so 
the Lord giveth His beloved sleep." 

Rest, oh, Victor! 

Your conquests gave no sorrow, 

Your victory caused no tears. 

Judge Jordan : I will be pleased to announce to 
you the next speaker will be Honorable John H. Baker, 
Judge of the United States District Court : — 

129 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 
Judge John H. Baker. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : Until 
a few moments ago I had no expectation of speaking a 
word of tribute to the memory of Colonel Thompson. 
No great and good man, such as Colonel Thompson 
was, wholly dies. His form has vanished from the 
sight of man, his silver tongue is silent, and we miss 
the touch of the vanished hand, but he still lives as an 
exemplar and inspiration not only to the bar and the 
men of this generation, but also to those who in the 
future may be called upon to administer justice and to 
direct the affairs of State. His memory will last long 
after the present generation has been gathered to its 
kindred dust as an inspiration to the hopes and ambi- 
tions of coming generations of the people of Indiana. 

Colonel Thompson came to the bar early in life. 
The American bar, it seems to me, affords the greatest 
opportunities for ambitious young men of any avoca- 
tion in life. This bar, of which our departed friend 
was a distinguished ornament, affords to its member- 
ship an opportunity for a life of great achievement. 
From it we have taken our Judges who have made illus- 
trious the jurisprudence of our country. The principles 
enunciated by its great lawyers and judges have been 
recognized and followed in the mother country. It has 
furnished orators and statesmen whose wisdom and 
genius framed the constitution under which we now 
live and have moulded and fashioned the institutions 
which have given shape to the destiny of the Ameri- 
can republic. 

The American bar has not been a numerous body. 

130 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

but I think I arrogate for it nothing to which it is not 
entitled when I say that in developing the life and shap- 
ing the destiny of the republic more is due to it than to 
any other one class of our people. It has furnished a 
great majority of our presidents and cabinet ofiBcers, 
and has always exercised a dominating influence in 
shaping the legislation of the Nation. It furnishes 
incitements to ambition in the domain of letters as well 
as in the domain of statesmanship, but above all, I 
think, the highest function of the bar is obtained when 
the honest, learned and thoughtful lawyer is engaged 
in vindicating the cause of right and justice in our 
courts. Much of the conservatism and the promise of 
stability of our institutions is due to the thoughtful 
and conservative labors of the bar. It was to this bar 
that our departed friend came early in life. He speed- 
ily rose to distinction. If he had chosen to remain at 
the bar and had devoted the splendid qualities of mind 
and heart which he possessed, he would unquestionably 
have risen to the very front. But when he had attain- 
ed distinction as a lawyer and orator, he, like many 
lawyers before and since, turned his attention to poli- 
tics and literature. In his political career and in his 
literar>' pursuits he was eminently successful and 
achieved a name and left a memory of which the State 
may well be proud. 

It was not my fortune to become acquainted with 
Colonel Thompson until late in his life. I first met him 
when he was Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of 
President Hayes. I shall never forget the first time 
I had the pleasure of hearing Colonel Thompson speak. 
The citizens of Norfolk, Virginia, had extended to 

131 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

the Secretary of the Xavy and to certain members of 
Congress an invitation to visit their city and to look 
over the old navy yard which had fallen into a con- 
dition of dilapidation. The citizens of Norfolk gave a 
great entertainment on that occasion, and after the din- 
ner was over Colonel Thompson was called upon to 
speak. His speech was admirable and eloquent, win- 
ning its way to the hearts of his hearers, although 
he was speaking to those who were yet sore over the 
results of the Civil War. 

Gentlemen of the Bar of \'igo County, if you fail 
to keep fresh in the memory of the bar of today and 
of the bar of the future the splendid example of this 
great man, vou will fail to do that which vou owe to 
vourselves and to those who are coming after you. 
I regret that I, like my distinguished friend. Governor 
Mount, have been compelled to speak to you in a ram- 
bling fashion. I regret it the more as I should have 
been glad to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of 
Colonel Thompson which was more worth}- of that 
great and good man. 

Judge Jordan : I have the pleasure of announcing 
the Honorable John L. Griffiths of Indianapolis : 

Honorable John L. Griffiths. 

Chairman, Members of the Bar: When a man 
dies full of years and of honors, the people mourn. 
Such a man was Richard W. Thompson. He was 
born in the memorable year 1809, the birth year also 
of Darwin, Gladstone, and Lincoln, proving again 
that the illustrious ones of earth come not singly but 

132 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

in constellations. He was contemporary with our na- 
tional life in the sense that, almost at the beginning, 
he gave direction and impetus and emphasis to our po- 
litical institutions, and continued to do so for over 
sixty years. He discharged the duties of every public 
trust faithfully and adequately. His stainless integrity, 
serene faith, superb courage, and consecrated loyalty 
made him an ideal leader. 

It is my purpose to say something very briefly 
this morning of Colonel Thompson as a public speaker. 
Resembling Lincoln, with whom he served in Congress 
and between whom and himself a beautiful friendship 
existed ever afterward, he came in closest touch, in 
tenderest sympathy with the plain people. This was 
one of the secrets of his power. He told me on one oc- 
casion that he thought the position of a public speaker 
was one of the greatest responsibility, for he was the 
custodian of a sacred trust and if he attempted in any 
way to mislead the people he grossly betrayed their 
confidence. Absolute candor was demanded of him. 
No public men of his day met the requirements of this 
exalted standard more fully than did Richard W. 
Thompson. It is difficult to define what constitutes 
true eloquence. Aptness of speech, wealth of imagery, 
nimbleness of wit, humor, irony, satire, invective, mel- 
ody of tone, graceful gestures, all these qualities es- 
sential though they may be are not sufficient of them- 
selves to move men to action. Two things must com- 
bine to make immortal speech — a great theme and one 
who is stirred to the profoundest depths of his being 
bv the consciousness that he is pleading for what is 
just and right, for what is unchangeable and eternal. 

133 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

It has been my privilege to listen to many distin- 
guished orators — Robert G. Ingersoll, Wendell Phil- 
lips, Henry Ward Beecher, and Charles Sumner, but 
no one ever attracted me in the way Colonel Thomp- 
son did. The silvery tones of his voice fell upon the 
ear as a holy benediction. His literarv- style always 
seemed to me quite flawless. The last time that I 
saw him was in his own library among the books he 
knew and loved so well. The struggle was almost 
over. He had fought a good fight and must soon 
meet his Pilot face to face. As I looked upon his 
noble countenance and listened to his inspiring words, 
I realized as I never had before that age brings its 
compensations as well as its handicaps, and that to be 
able to survey a well-spent life, free from selfishness, 
envy and malice, means much more than to look for- 
ward to a bitter struggle for those honors which men 
so eagerly seek, but which count for so little in the 
final reckoning. 

Indiana is proud of what her distinguished sons 
have achieved in letters and science and art, but she 
prizes most highly the integrity and honesty of her 
public servants, Oliver P. Morton, Daniel W. Voor- 
hees, Conrad Baker, Thomas A. Hendricks and Rich- 
ard W. Thompson. They all considered a public 
office a public trust. Colonel Thompson had a genius 
for friendship. He was singularly winsome in draw- 
ing men close to him. We can say of him as Lowell 
said of Emerson: "That he constantly kept burning 
the beacon light of an ideal life above our power region 
of turmoil." He will fill a larger, ever larger place in 
the thoughts and aflfections of men. because his judg- 

134 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

ments of men were so sane and true, his insight so 
keen and deep and penetrating, his sympathies so ten- 
der and boundless and his common-sense so uncom- 
mon. His example will be an inspiration to many gen- 
erations. As we tenderly think of him to-day may we 
consecrate ourselves anew and with fresh zeal to the 
service of God and country. 

Judge Jordan : The next speaker whom I have the 
pleasure to announce, Honorable John T. Hays: 

Honorable John T. Hays. 

Mr. Chairman : In adding my tribute to the 
memory of Colonel Thompson, I cannot expect to say 
of him what has not already been said. Every organi- 
zation, every class throughout the entire range of our 
institutions have adopted resolutions of respect to his 
memory — well done on each occasion. 

I had the privilege of meeting Colonel Thompson in 
1872, in a lawsuit in the town of Sullivan, where I 
have since lived. Engaged in that lawsuit were Colo- 
nel Baird, Judge Mack and Senator Joe McDonald. 
It was before I came to the bar, but the memory of 
that lawsuit never has, and never will pass from my 
mind; for there I beheld a lawsuit. In that lawsuit 
were engaged lawyers. It was an inspiration to one 
contemplating entering so noble a profession, but T 
must say, somewhat discouraging to see the long span 
before one could hope to reach that point where those 
persons engaged in that lawsuit had already reached. 
That was twenty-eight years ago. I then knew Colo- 
nel Thompson as a lawyer. Afterwards I knew him 

135 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

through the various campaigns down until the last as 
a statesman. 

He is renowned as a statesman. We behold here 
to-day represented at his funeral the highest dignita- 
ries of our State, who came to lay their tribute of re- 
spect at his feet. Were any one asked to name the 
particular characteristic in Colonel Thompson that 
would call for this, no one would name it. As has 
been so well said : That eye in which could be seen 
the fire and courage was also the glow of gentleness ; 
that smile that played upon his face was but the re- 
flection of that heart that drew all men, whoever came 
in contact with him, confidently toward him. 

Of late it has been my privilege to know Colonel 
Thompson in his home. No part of my experience 
will produce sweeter memories in the remainder of my 
life than that for the last ten years I have sat at his 
table upon every anniversary of his birthday. Now 
many people of Terre Haute, and all over the State, 
beheld the crowded Naylor's Opera House on the 
night of his eighty-fifth anniversary. Now I remem- 
ber the remark that General Harrison made on that 
occasion, when he said, "I have frequently seen as- 
semblies for the purpose of pronouncing eulogies on 
the dead, but never before have I seen the unique 
condition here presented of pronouncing eulogies on 
the living." That night at his home, after such re- 
spect had been paid, as in all my experience I have not 
known paid to the living, he. in his simple, kind gen- 
tle manner simply stated, ''I have but done my duty." 

Aye! he has done it well. How glad the people of 
Terre Haute must be in that for so many years, on 

136 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

each return of his anniversary, they had gone to his 
house, to his home, carryinc;- their beaming counte- 
nances to meet that genial smile from his. 

The school children who are now going down in 
groups paying respects to his dead form, came when 
he was living. How they rejoice in that. 

Matchless man ! Noble example ! Truly indeed 
do we believe that with him life was worth living; 
that beyond he is able to take by the hand his friends, 
— Dick, Ben, Dan and Joe (as he always called them) 
\\''ebster and Clay. What a meeting, what a consum- 
mation, and its glory is not dimmed by the addition of 
Colonel Richard W. Thompson. 

Judge Jordan : I am pleased to announce to you 
the next speaker, Honorable John V. Hadley of the 
Supreme Court : 

Honorable John V. Hadley 
OF THE Supreme Court. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : I feel 
quite unable to add anything of interest to what has 
already been said ; moreover, I am not able to speak 
of the deceased as a lawyer. His active career at the bar 
had been closed before I was fortunate enough to en- 
joy his acquaintance. Indeed, our personal relations 
were never intimate, but my acquaintance with him 
was of a character to afford opportunity for a general 
knowledge of his sterling qualities as a citizen. 

I served with him in the National Convention of 
1888. I there had occasion to confer with him every 
day, and sometimes many times a day, and I became 
greatly impressed with his fidelity to our candidate, 

137 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

with the wisdom of his counsel and with the absolute 
fairness of his tactics. His knowledge of men, and 
political situations in the several States of the Union 
was remarkable, and the sagacity he displayed in 
turning situations in favor of our candidate, in my 
judgment, contributed more to his nomination than 
the efforts of any other person upon the Indiana del- 
egation. 

It may truthfully be said that Colonel Thompson 
was a remarkable man. His long life, lived through a 
century, was exploited in public and private ; he oc- 
cupied the most honorable and trusted stations ; ex- 
posed to the shafts of envious rivals and political oppo- 
nents for more than sixty years and remained abso- 
lutely unscarred by a single dishonorable act. or ques- 
tionable transaction. It may be said to be the universal 
verdict that in all the many exalted stations to which 
the confidence of the people from time to time called 
him, he proved himself the honest and capable public 
servant. Such a life is a grand life, and such a man 
is a "grand old man." 

The last time I saw Colonel Thompson was in this 
city about a year ago while I was attending the State 
Encampment. I was sitting with him upon the plat- 
form of the State Normal when two ladies approached 
him. Tottering and trembling under his load of years, 
he arose, and when remonstrated with for rising, he 
remarked, "I never in my life suffered myself to re- 
main seated when shaking hands with a lady." To 
the end gallant, dignified, courteous, obliging, replete 
with the embellishments of human character, he was 
a man to be honored and missed. 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Judge Jordan : I now have the honor to announce 
Judge Comstock of the Appleate Court. 

Hon. Judge Comstock of the Appellate 

Court. 

Mr. Chairman : I am grateful for the privilege 
of joining in this expression of regard for a distin- 
guished citizen. I only regret that upon the instant I 
have nothing to say worthy of the occasion. It seems 
to me that among all these people, friends and neigh- 
bors of Colonel Thompson, who have for so many 
years been familiar with his daily walk and conversa- 
tion it would be idle to attempt to enumerate his many 
virtues, or to emphasize his noble life. It is proper, 
it is due, however, from the living that when so illus- 
trious a character passes away, note should be taken of 
his departure. 

For more than half a century it was his privilege 
to look at the illustrious procession of the distin- 
guished men of the great Republic, and if he was not 
always at its head, he at least occupied a conspicuous 
and honorable position in its ranks. It is not within 
human limitations for men to accomplish all that they 
may desire, and it may be that Colonel Thompson did 
not attain his ultimate ambition, but his career was 
wonderful, extending, as has been stated, through the 
greater part of the life of the Republic. His contact 
with eminent men, the manner in which he trod every 
walk of life which he was called upon to tread ; cer- 
tainly the purity of his life, the old age which caused 
him to be cherished by those with whom he came per- 

139 



RICHARD W. THOiMPSON 

sonally in contact, the long period of years in which 
his personal friendships were maintained, mark him as 
almost single in the history of this country. 

It is wonderful that long beyond the period when 
man ceases to take an active part in life, his mind was 
still alert, and that he made new friendships while re- 
taining the old. As has been said of another, ''he re- 
mained the contemporary of his unwasted prime." 

If a pure and honorable and upright and industri- 
ous life can be of any avail hereafter, it must follow 
that while his troop of friends would follow his re- 
mains to the tomb, they are assured that beyond its 
gloomy portals his happiness is assured. 

Judge Jordan : I now have the pleasure of an- 
nouncing Honorable D. E. Williamson of Greencastle : 

Honorable D. E. Williamson. 

Mr. Chairman : I have known Colonel Thomp- 
son, been associated with him in lawsuits, met him in 
lawsuits, met him in politics, engaged in politics. I 
have an extended acquaintance in my experience with 
my dear friend. 

I have thought it best, on an occasion of this sort, 
our thoughts ought to be as condensed as possible, so 
I will present a few thoughts : 

"Colonel Thompson's life covers the larger part of 
the greatest century of the world's history : by his 
talent, his elegant manners and eloquent voice he won 
and maintained a position in the front ranks of society. 

"For fifty years he stood upon the firing line of 
public sentiment where it required the highest mental 

140 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

equipment t6 conquer, occupy, and hold the position he 
held in public life and without effort he was equal to 
every emergency ; honest and resourceful in his polit- 
ical life, incorruptible in office, faithful and impartial 
as a judge, he won the respect and aflfection of all with 
whom he came in contact and died full of years and 
earthly honors. 

"He fell into the arms of death with the grace and 
ease with which he met the problems of life. 

"Our dear friend has passed the limit of human 
knowledge and we stand appalled in the presence of 
death ; at this point fact ceases and the greatest of all 
questions meets us full in the face 

"If a man die, shall he live again ?" 

"The death devoted Greek asked this question of 
the beautiful maiden who stood at his side, and then 
said: 

" T have asked this question of the eternal hills, of 
the river that flows forever, of the stars above, all, all 
were dumb, but when I look into thy beautiful face 
something tells me that we shall meet beyond the 
river.' 

"Our faith in divine promises confirms the hope of 
the Greek. 

"It must be so — 

Plato, thou reasoneth well — 

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 

This longing after immortality? 

Or whence this secret dread, this inward 

Horror of falling into naught? 

Why shrinks the soul back on herself 

141 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

And startles at destruction? 

Tis the divinity that stirs within us, 

Tis heaven itself that points out a hereafter 

and intimates eternity to man. 
Eternity : 
Thou pleasing dreadful thought." 

"My acquaintance with Colonel Thompson com- 
menced in 1842 when he was returning from Wash- 
ington to his home in Bedford, all public travel then 
being by stage lines a stoppage at Bowling Green was 
necessary for a change of horses. The news soon 
spread that we had a real live Congressman in the 
village, and I, with others, repaired to the Harvey 
Hotel where we were introduced to Colonel Thomp- 
son. 

"His personal appearance made such an impression 
upon my mind that it is yet as fresh as though it were 
but yesterday. He was then about thirty-three years of 
age, of medium size, dressed in congressional style, 
black hair, dark complexioned and piercing dark eyes 
— truly a handsome man. Terre Haute has been un- 
fortunate in the loss of many of her distinguished 
men, but recently. Nelson, \''oorhees, and now the la- 
mented Thompson. 

"When will Terre Haute be blessed with such an- 
other trio?" 

Judge Jordan : I now have the pleasure of an- 
nouncing Dr. W. H. Wishard of Indianapolis : 

Dr. W. H. Wishard. 

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Bar: It 
does seem to me a little out of place to call on a doctor. 

142 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

but I will say a few words, I cannot expect to enter- 
tain after the eloquent words that have been spoken 
here to-day. I will only say that he was my senior six 
years, and I have known him since 1835, and inti- 
mately known him since 1840. In that great cam- 
paign of 1840 with such men as Jordon, James Madi- 
son, John Marshall, George Clark, Judah, McCarthy, 
Smith, Henry S. Lane, and it was said by Henry 
Clay that in no other State in the northwest were there 
such orators as in Indiana, and Richard W. Thomp- 
son stood in the front ranks. 

"I could enumerate several little anecdotes which 
occurred between us on up to the present time, but I 
will not take up your time. I will only say that he was 
a rare public speaker, combining wit, eloquence and 
logic. There is not one man out of one hundred that 
is a public speaker who combines wit, eloquence and 
logic as that man did. 

"Now I cannot say anything more than has been said, 
but I will say he has done what few men have ever 
done, he has grown old gracefully, in touch with every 
generation he has come in contact with. In that re- 
spect he is like a benediction to all men. Then I can 
say another thing which cannot always be said about 
public men — I am very sorry for it — throw upon his 
life the searchlight and in private and public life 
there is not a spot nor a blemish ; that of itself is a 
crown of glory to any man. 

"I won't take up your time ; I will say we belonged 
to the same club, the old Tippecanoe Club, organized 
in 1876. I am the only one here to-day of that club. 

"Now we are going to lay away a great and good 

143 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

man who lived a life pure in public and private, and 
all honor to his memory and his memory will be a 
benediction to us all. 

Judge Jordan : I will next announce Judge Ared 
F. White ': 

Judge Ared F. White. 

Mr. Chairman : "Coming to an hour like this, 
one could well wish himself the master of the ample 
vocabulary and chaste diction which characterized the 
utterances of the distinguished dead whose memory 
we commemorate to-day. But God does not endow 
men with such gifts but once in a thousand years. 
We who have so often been thrilled and captivated by 
his matchless art, must be content with the plain speech 
with which we attempt to express the profound sorrow 
brought by this solemn epoch in the history of our 
State. The people of Parke County do not wish me on 
this occasion to attempt an analysis of the character of 
their dead friend. They know it by heart. His rela- 
tions to them were so affectionate, the habitude of his 
life among them so simple and ingenious, their regard 
for him so much that of a neighbor and friend, that the 
elements of his character have been the topic of af- 
fectionate and familiar talks at their firesides for 
nearly a century. Neither do they wish me to recall 
the long list of civic duties which he discharged with 
such signal ability and fidelity. 

"These things are a part of the history of the Repub- 
lic, which all remember with pride and gratitude. The 
occasions will be many in the future, the needs of the 

144 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

hour will be such that his public record will be studied 
for the wisdom and inspiration it affords. Much less 
do they wish me to indulge in panegyric on that mar- 
velous gift with which he so easily led captive the 
intellect, the sensibilities and the will of thousands. 
They, too, have been bondsmen to the charm of his 
eloquence at the bar, on the platform and the hustings. 
"All this is within the common knowledge of the 
people and is the common heritage of all. But they 
do ask me to come at this hour and in their name 
and for them to say that their hearts are bowed down 
with ineffable sadness and the sense of irreparable loss 
at the death of their neighbor and friend. 

'That was an exceedingly appropriate, as well as a 
pathetic expression of the feeling of the great heart 
of the common people, when the plain man at the tomb 
of Webster at Marshfield said : 'Daniel Webster, the 
world seems lonesome without you.' 

"Those who sit at the council of the Nation will 
miss the wisdom of the experience, the ample knowl- 
edge, the conservatism of the statesman now gone. 
His political comrades in arms will never hear again 
the clear call of his commands, and will look in vain 
for his white plume in the fore front of the battle. The 
church has lost a faithful devotee and a strong de- 
fender of the faith. The galaxy of Indiana authors 
has lost a star whose benign radiance now illumes 
another sphere. 

"The bar has heard for the last time the courtly ad- 
vocate of the olden time. He has left us for the 
goodly company of Lincoln and Washington and 
Abraham and the wise and good beyond the flood. 

145 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

He has gone to join Howard and Lane and ]MarshalI 
and Morton and Hendricks and Voorhees who, with 
himself, gave our State her civic renown, and to meet 
Kimball and Hovey and Cruft and Lawton in the 
camps of the Silent Land. Of the trinity of the edu- 
cational forces of the Prairie City, your Normal School 
and Polytechnic Institute still remain in present and 
pristine vigor, but the other and older but yesterday 
fell to ruin, and is passing to decay. But most of all, 
as we pass on 'down the cool sequestered vale of life,' 
shall we miss the benign face, the kindly voice, the 
charming personality, and inspiration, the affectionate 
fellowship of our friend. Just now this makes our 
sorrow inconsolable. We cannot see as yet his name 
high yonder in the Pantheon for our heads are bowed 
and our eyes are blurred with tears. 

"The old, old fashioned death ; but oh ! thank God 
for that older fashion yet, immortality. 

"When Rufus Choate was about to embark for a 
year's absence in Italy, one of his friends upon taking 
his hand in farewell, said : 'You will be with us a 
year hence.' Then your great orator, your great 
lawyer and scholar, who had impressed himself perma- 
nently upon the history of New England, replied : 
'Sir, I shall be with you a year hence, and a thousand 
vears hence.' 

"Our distinguished friend has been with us so 
long, has become so much a part of the histor}- of the 
Republic and of the century just closing, that he is 
not gone. He is with us to-day ; he will be with us 
a year hence and a thousand years hence. 

146 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

TELEGRAM FROM HON. ROBERT S. 

TAYLOR. 

Ft. Wayne, Ind. 

"I regret my inability to be present at the meeting 
in memory of the lawyer, statesman and patriot whose 
life was a perpetual inspiration to his fellow citizens 
and whose death is a personal grief to us all. 

"R. S. Taylor." 



LETTER OF REGRET FROM HON. GEO. 
A. KNIGHT OF BRAZIL. 

Gentlemen : I received this morning your kind 
invitation to attend the bar meeting and funeral obse- 
quies of the late Colonel Richard W. Thompson. I 
very much regret my inability to be present on either 
occasion. A great and good man, in the fullness of 
years has fallen and gone to his reward. His family 
and friends have my deepest sympathy. He was 
spared to them, by a kind Providence, much longer 
than the ordinary duration of human life, and the 
recollection of this fact should prove a source of con- 
solation to them. His career has been an eventful 
one. His death will be mourned by all who knew him 
in life. His public life was marked by fidelity to every 
trust, as his private life has been pure and unsullied. 
He had a warm, sympathetic heart, was magnanimous 
and generous, strong in his attachments and devoted 
to his friends. In his death the State has lost one of 

147 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

its most distinguished citizens, the country a patriot 
and statesman of a school of which he was the last 
survivor. The community in which he spent almost a 
half century of his useful life will greatly miss him, 
and deeply mourn his loss. His life-work is ended 
and at last he has found rest and peace. The memory 
of his good deeds will long survive. It was my hope 
that he would live to celebrate the centennial anniver- 
sary of his birth, but an all-wise Providence has other- 
wise ruled and to that decree we must submit. In 
the grave, to which his mortal remains will soon be 
consigned, may his rest be peaceful and his sleep 
sweet. I pay this last sad tribute to his memory and 
cast this sprig of affection and esteem upon his bier 
before the grave closes upon his manly form forever." 



LETTER FROM HONORABLE THOMAS 
J. GOLDEN, MARSHALL, ILL. 

"Speaking as a single member of the profession, 
not claiming to represent any bar or class, I believe I 
state what is literally true when I say that Colonel 
Thompson was held in high and honored estimation 
by the bench and bar and people of Illinois, regardless 
of party or creed. 

"His noble and commanding presence was always 
instinct with benediction and the kindliest courtesy. 
His Chesterfieldian grace of manners and fervid ora- 
tory never failed to excite the deepest respect and the 
closest attention. His long and glorious life almost 
spanned the 19th century, two-thirds of it on the public 

148 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

stage, — expiring in the closing days of the century, 
'ripe in years and honors,' he joins the great majority 
and in the life beyond inverts the natural order in 
finding that he is younger there than the other emi- 
nent men of his day and generation who have gone 
before. 

"A remembrance of his charming hallowed per- 
sonality will long linger on the banks of the Wabash 
and his tongue and pen will ever speak on the re- 
corded pages of the history-making epoch of his 
grand life. He leaves a record that needs no eulogy. 

"Respectfully, 

"T. J. Golden." 



LETTER FROM HONORABLE W. P. FISH- 
BACK, INDIANAPOLIS. 

"It was my good fortune to be a friend and admirer 
of Colonel Thompson for many years. His friends 
can speak of him without reserve — there is no place 
for apology*' or exaggeration in speaking of the life of 
such a man. What a life crowned with length of days 
and honors. A great lawyer — a partisan without ran- 
cor or malice — without a quality that would make him 
disliked by any human being." 



Judge Jordan : I take pleasure in announcing Hon- 
orable M. G. Rhoads of Newport, Indiana : 

Honorable M. G. Rhoades. 
Mr. President : In Vermillion County, which it 

149 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

is my privilege to represent on this sad occasion, Colo- 
nel Thompson seemed to be one of our own citizens. 

Men were accustomed to speak of him as one whom 
they knew well, whom they trusted, whom they loved. 
And when the news came that he was dying, and then 
that he was dead, we were shocked as when a most 
intimate friend has passed over the river. 

What was it about him, w^hat cliaracteristics had 
he, that others were so attached to him? 

Already, these other gentlemen who have spoken 
so feelingly of our deceased friend, have mentioned 
his qualities of mind and heart, and have told in what 
manner he won in the battle of life. 

It was not my fortune to know personally anything 
about the charmed circle of his home life, but I have 
met him at the bar, on the bench, in the political arena, 
and on the platform. I have read his books. In all of 
these places, he was eminent, and was the idol of those 
who knew him. 

Colonel Thompson began his life very early in the 
19th century. His youth and early manhood were 
subjected to that older and more stately influence 
which produced such men as Webster and Hayne, 
Clay and Calhoun, Lyman Beecher and Alexander 
Campbell, and other great men of that period. In 
those days the press had but little influence in shaping 
the opinions of men. 

They, who had a happy diction and a graceful style 
of speech, were the centers of power. Men went to 
hear them speak, not only to be pleased but to be in- 
formed upon the questions of the day. 

When Colonel Thompson was Judge of the Ver- 

150 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

million Circuit Court, he said to me in my office that 

while he was yet a boy, he met the old masters of 
oratory at Washington and got to reading their 
speeches ; that he admired Henry Clay most because 
of his thrilling flights and keen, cutting remarks, 
"and," said he, — shaking the ashes from his one-half 
smoked cigar — "I think I insensibly fell into some of 
their ways, and whatever of oratory I possess is due 
largely to the influence of those years." Following 
such models, he became what people were pleased to 
call him "the silver-tongued Orator of the Wabash," 
and later, as the years grew upon him, they named 
him "the Old man-eloquent." 

Then, Colonel Thompson was a good man. I do 
not mean simply that he was religious or moral, in his 
private life, nor that he was honest in paying his debts. 
There is a larger sense in which goodness applies to a 
man as a characteristic. In all the relations of life he 
was so constituted mentally and morally that, like the 
Master in whom he profoundly believed, "he went 
about doing good." He responded to every call for 
charity. If the public wanted a new enterprise, his 
voice rang out in its advocacy. If his church was 
without a pastor, he supplied the vacancy with a lec- 
ture. If a friend lacked bread he supplied the loaves 
and fishes. 

Everywhere, and all through his long Hfe, he la- 
bored for others' welfare without hope of reward, and 
thus he endeared himself to the masses as few men 
have done. 

A great poet has said : 

151 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

"The evil that men do Hves after them, the good is 
oft' interred with their bones." 

But a greater than he has written : 

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they 
rest from their labors, and their works do follow 
them." 

The poet was wrong and the inspired writer is cor- 
rect. 

Who to-day has recalled any evil thing which Colo- 
nel Thompson did? Who, in all this assembly of men 
who knew him best, can recall an instance of bad 
faith, a broken pledge, or friendship betrayed ? Who, 
that cannot point to hundreds of instances where his 
great abilities and accomplishments were used to ad- 
vance the cause of right? The evening sun will have 
set before you, my friends, could enumerate the in- 
stances within your knowledge of his works of benev- 
olence and charity. 

And so it will be, as the funeral procession this 
afternoon shall bear his honored remains to their last 
resting place, amid the tears and sorrowings of his 
devoted friends, and occasion will but strengthen our 
memory of his great and worthy deeds. 

Colonel Thompson is indeed "at rest from his la- 
bors ;" but his mantle has fallen upon us ; and the 
precious influence of his noble life shall distill its sweet- 
ness upon our children and our children's children, for 
"his works do follow him." 



152 



INTERVIEWS AND POEM 



,• '■V' 



^A <^ 




RICHARD W. r H I) M P S N 
A il e 8 7 



Interviews and Poem 

HON. W. H. H. MILLER, 

Ex-Attorney General United States. 

He was a man that everybody in the Republican 
party especially loved. Even those of us who con- 
sider ourselves old in the party looked upon him 
as a grand old character when we were boys. In 
the nature of things he must go, yet he will be 
greatly missed in his party and by the people of 
the State. He was a man of great attainments 
and experience, of great repute in public affairs. 



GEN. McGINNIS, 

Postmaster, Indianapolis, Indiana. 

I have known Colonel Thompson a good many 
years and have always found him to be a true and 
considerate friend. He certainly was a good old 
man. In one of the last conversations I held with 
him we were talking about a big speech I heard 
him deliver at Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1840. Mr. 
Thompson was a member of Congress at that time 
and was on his way home, traveling by stage from 
Washington Cxty to Indiana. Chillicothe was my 
home at that time. When Mr. Thompson's 
friends learned he would be in town, they stopped 
him and he delivered the speech I spoke of. 

155 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 
HOx\. JOHN G. WILLIAMS, 

Indianapolis, Indiana. 

In 1869. when, as a young lawyer, I went to 
Terre Haute, I met Colonel Thompson frequent- 
ly. In 1877 I succeeded him as General Counsel 
of the Vandalia Company. I was, from the first, 
greatly impressed by his pleasing, kindly, courtly 
personality. He was particularly charming and 
agreeable in his associaton with and treatment of 
young men, always extending to them the greatest 
consideration. He carried the fine flavor of the 
Virginia gentleman of the old school, not only in 
his deportment, but in his accent, to the day of his 
death. In private and in public life, he was above 
reproach. Twenty-five or thirty years ago he lived 
about four miles out of Terre Haute. He owned 
a number of good horses, and, winter and sum- 
mer, rode to town with a grace of horsemanship 
that plainly showed his Virginia blood. 



HONORABLE FREDERICK LANDIS. 

The patriarch is gone. 

The kind old sage of Terre Haute is dead. 

Last week the old folks of Indiana thought of 
Richard Thompson. His name was spoken in 
cities and towns and out in the countr\^ where love 
never wears out and heroes seem taller than any- 
where else. While men stood in groups by the 
meeting house door and as thev squinted their 

156 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

eyes to see through the past and said something 
about "Sumter" and "Lincoln" and "Uncle Dick," 
their voices trembled a little. 

Richard Thompson belonged to these men. He 
was their leader a lifetime ago, for Indiana was 
but a child when his voice first rang through the 
forest and he rode to fame in the saddle. 

The issues he discussed are now deep in the 
books; his contemporaries have been dead and 
forgotten for years; grandfathers are his name- 
sakes and little children his dearest friends. 

For some reason, possibly this Indiana air, most 
people remember the first political speech they ever 
heard, and as it is fashionable to take the babies 
to political meetings along the Wabash, a good 
many cut teeth on propositions vital to the Nation. 

Richard Thompson was my first speaker, and 
to this day he stands on the shadowy frontier of 
my memory. 

He was an old man then. He always was an 
old man. I remember the closing sentence in that 
early speech about the tariff : "I am for prosperity 
here at home." 



What a magic there was in this venerable gen- 
tleman's conversation. He could populate historic 
scenes with the real inhabitants thereof. He 
could do it for he was there. 

Many of the men he knew and with whom he 
served his country, seem in our exaggerated vis- 
ion to have lived ages ago, and the little visits he 

157 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

paid to the shrines of the past charmed his State 
and held childhood spellbound. 



In the Sycamore City he was a sort of Universal 
Grandfather, and many the flowers on his table 
and unnumbered the joys in his heart strewn by the 
affectionate hand of Terre Haute. 

Nowhere between heaven and earth is there a 
grander thing than a heart of the hearts of thous- 
ands. 

The people down there looked upon "Uncle 
Dick" as the one whose wishes had a perpetual 
right of way through all the days of his life. 

For instance, I know of a band of young ladies 
who organized for the purpose of spending tvvo 
nights each week during the winter with the old 
gentleman, and on these occasions it is reliably 
stated that Mr. Thompson never permitted a 
dreary moment to sit humped up at the fireside. 

The Old School is passing. Lane and Morton, 
Hendricks and Voorhees, Porter and McDonald, 
and a host of others who led the line in olden 
times have gone. Turpie and Biddle alone re- 
main of that band which stood on Indiana's stage 
when the flames of disunion roared and political 
strife was a thing which included anonymous 
threats and knives, and a politician was about as 
hazardous a risk as an insurance company could 
find. 

What a treasure was a memory like that of 
Richard Thompson. What a panorama, what a 

158 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

world! A world in which giants of old journeyed 
their mighty ways. His memory was a history of 
his country and his knee was the throne of child- 
hood. What a sorrow such a memory passes in 
an instant and is lost, and yet what a burial Rich- 
ard Thompson had. It was the burial of a king! 

And why ? 

No, not for noise and pomp and vulgar brass 
and scarlet. It was kingly, for in the silence there 
were little folks, and in their upturned faces were 
tears when Indiana laid her oldest son to rest. 



COLONEL R. W. THOMPSON. 

i8g6. 

A statesman true in halls of state, 
In argument, in speech, debate, 

And unassuming ; 
Our "grand old man" with honored days, 
Upon whose brow the shining "bays" 

Have long been blooming. 

His ringing voice and silver tongue, 
That never yet wdth false note rung. 

Nor yet recanted. 
His words, his burning eloquence, 
With strong: mesmeric power intense, 

Holds all enchanted. 

His wit is like the stars that run, 
Or like the flash of noonday sun, 
In which we bask us, 

159 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

And cuts as trenchant and as keen 
As any shining blade, I ween, 
Made in Damascus. 

Clean is his heart, clean is his hand, 
His good deeds cover all the land, 

Like scattered manna. 
His history is one fair page, 
That all may read : The honored Sage 

Of Indiana. 

igoo. 

And now we come from different ways. 
And mingle Cypress witii the "bays" 

We wreathe about him. 
With loving hands and hearts that yearn, 
Alas ! how can we ever learn 

To do without him? 

To-day his form is lying low. 
And love's last tribute we bestow, 

For death has won him ; 
But e'en in death how grand he lies. 
With face toward the welcome skies, 

God's peace upon him ! 

Martina Swafford. 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON. 

At a banquet given by the Thompson Club in 
the city of Terre Haute, on the evening of June 
9th, 1900, the 91st anniversary of the birth of 
Colonel Thompson, in answer to the toast. ''Rich- 

160 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

ard W. Thompson — here let us renew our faith in 
the doctrines he proclaimed, and here make high 
resolve to perpetuate in power the party he loved 
and served," Mr. Hanly said:* 

In Virginia, — the "Old Dominion," — "mother of 
states" and "of presidents," — the home of Washington, 
of Jefferson, of Madison, and Monroe, of brave men 
and fair women ; where the sons of the "first families" 
grew to a generous and chivalric manhood, and the 
daughters to a proud and glorious womanhood ; where 
government was administered and the affairs of state 
controlled by an aristocracy as by divine right ; where 
in spite of the great Declaration, some were born to 
command, while others were bom to serve ; where 
courtly dignity and lavish hospitality charmed and 
entertained all who crossed the threshold of this inner 
and privileged circle ; — 

At a time when ambition, sin by which the angels 
fell, had not yet poisoned the waters of patriotism ; 
before the inertia of wealth had enfeebled American 
manhood, or the greed of gain had dispoiled the people 
of their moral worth ; when the memories of the Revo- 
lution were yet undimmed ; when there were living vet- 
erans of the Brandy wine and of Monmouth, who in 
the summer twilight were wont to tell "how fields 
were won ;" when representative government was yet 
an experiment ; when the great northwest was 

"A solitude 

Of vast extent, untouched by hand of Art. 

Where Nature sowed herself 
And reaped her crops ;" 

i6i 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

In the year 1809, — a year made memorable as the birth- 
year of great men, — HamHn, Gladstone. Lincoln, Dar- 
win, Poe, Holmes, Louis Allemond and Mendelssohn ; 
at such a time, and amid such surroundings. Richard 
Wigginton Thompson was born. 

Virginia may claim his birth-place and childhood, 
but his youth, his mature manhood and his old age. 
belong to us. He came to Indiana when he and the 
State both were young. Sixty-eight years he dwelt 
among us ; sixty-eight years we saw him come and go 
before us ; sixty-eight years he wrought and taught in 
our presence ; sixty-eight years he lived and toiled, not 
for himself, but for us. And in all those years, 

''He never made a brow look dark. 
Nor caused a tear but when he died." 

If, "What a man does for others, not what they 
do for him, gives him immortality." Richard W. 
Thompson is immortal. Finite mind cannot measure 
the value of his services to Indiana. The strands of his 
life run like entwined threads of silk and gold through 
all the woof and warp of Hoosier history, from 1832 
to 1900. 

There was scarcely a phase of life with which his 
personality did not come in contact and wliich was not 
strengthened by his touch. 

As a teacher, as a lawyer, as a member of the 
General Assembly, as a Representative in Congress, 
as Provost Marshal, as Revenue Collector, as a jurist. 
as a member of the President's Cabinet, as an orator, 
as a publicist, and in his life as a private citizen, he 
demonstrated that, 

162 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

"The bravest lives are those to duty wed, 

Whose deeds both great and small, 
Are close knit strands of an unbroken thread." 

I did not have more than a slight acquaintance with 
Colonel Thompson, and yet, without his knowledge, 
our life lines crossed in my childhood, and the touch 
left a lasting impress upon my future. 

When thirteen years of age I walked barefooted a 
distance of twelve miles to hear Will Cumback deliver 
a Fourth of July oration in Champaign, Illinois. It 
was my first celebration. I had attended public school 
little or none. My father's library consisted of the 
Bible, a biography of John Wesley, another of Orange 
Scott, and a history of the Civil War. In these I had 
learned to read. They had constituted my world. 
Cumback's speech was a revelation to me. It inspired 
a desire to learn something of the world and its affairs. 
A few months later my opportunity came. A Republi- 
can rally was advertised for Danville, Illinois. I at- 
tended this meeting. Speeches were made in the after- 
noon by men of note, whose names I have long since 
forgotten. At night there was a great audience. The 
speaker of the evening was introduced. Amid a burst 
of applause that grew and swelled into cheers, repeated 
again and again, he stepped to the front of the plat- 
form. He was a man of slight build, erect and active. 
There was about him a quiet dignity, a courtly grace 
and regal pose that gave him distinction. His face I 
thought was pale, and his hair was almost white. His 
eyes glowed with the fire of conviction. At their first 
glance they caught and held the attention of my every 
faculty. 

163 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

I knew little of public affairs, and nothing of public 
men ; I was ignorant of the great questions of state 
which then divided the people, but I felt instinctively, 
before he had said a word, that the man on the plat- 
form was an orator. 

A moment, and he began to speak. I heard the 
matchless music of his voice, marvelous in melody, 
and indescribable in the sweetness of its cadence. T 
listened to his simple, finished periods, eloquent and 
rounded, and charged with the electric current of sin- 
cerity, and I knew, ignorant as I was, that I stood in 
the presence of a master of human speech. 

For two hours he swayed that assemblage of five 
thousand people as though it were but one man, 

"Played with each wild passion as it went. 

Now stirred the uproar, now the murmur stilled.'" 

The most gifted and consummate musician never 
possessed more absolute mastery of harp or violin than 
this man had of the hearts and wills of his auditors. 
They were to him the keys of one vast instrument, 
five thousand in number, which he touched at will 
and set to the inspiring music of his own impassioned 
and masterful eloquence. 

As for me, when he closed, he had flung over that 
night a light, 

"That never was by sea or land." 

As by Divine power he had set my soul aflame, put 
ajar the flood gates of thought and opened the win- 
dows of faith and hope, until for the first time. T saw 

164 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 



"The great world's altar-stairs 
Slope through darkness up to God." 

The beauty, and the pathos, and the power of what 
I had seen and heard sent me away awed and subdued, 
but resolved, somehow and in some way, to bear a 
man's share in the world's affairs. From that hour 
until the day of his death I loved Richard W. Thomp- 
son, for it was he to whom I had listened. Thenceforth 
he became my idol. I worshipped him in my obscurity, 
as a child worships some effulgent star set in the 
darkling canopy of the night and separated from him 
by illimitable space. 

And now after twenty-four years, through the 
courtesy of the members of this Club, named in his 
honor, wedded to the doctrines he proclaimed and 
devoted to the welfare of the party he served, I am per- 
mitted in this goodly presence, here in the city where 
he lived, where he was best known, and most beloved, 
to pay halting and feeble but sincere tribute to his 
memory. 

I would, Mr. Toastmaster, that I could weave a 
chaplet of fadeless immortelles and set them round 
about with the rarest gems to be found in the casket of 
human speech, and leave it with you to be kept for- 
ever as a souvenir of my affection for him. An affec- 
tion born of the service he rendered me, a ragged, 
barefoot boy, about to start upon the dangerous and 
uncertain pathway of life. Aye, sir, Webster is right : 

"What a man does for others, not what they do for 
him, gives him immortality." 

As he touched, inspired and ennobled my life, he 

165 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

touched and inspired and ennobled the Hves of thous- 
ands of other men and women. These are his fittest 
monument, and are his surest guarantee of lasting and 
enduring fame. 

Men measure all things by comparison. For ex- 
ample, the height of a tree does not depend wholly upon 
the distance from its root to its topmost branch. It is 
low or tall according to the place it occupies above or 
below the surrounding forest. If it towers above the 
plane of the forest about it, we say it is a tall tree, with- 
out much regard to its actual height. Tt is tall by 
comparison. 

So it is with men. W^e measure them by their con- 
temporaries and declare them to be great or small ac- 
cording as they rise above or sink below the level of 
the generation to which they belong. As to men this is 
a just measurement. It is fair that they should be es- 
timated in the light of their own environment, and not 
in that of the conditions which surrounded other ages ; 
and that they should be compared with the men of their 
own times and not with those of other epochs. It re- 
quires greater qualities to win renown in an age of 
intellectual activity, of learning, of inquiry, of discov- 
ery and achievement than it docs in an age of mental 
stupor, of ignorance, of idleness and retrogression : 
but, though this be true, a man may not justly claim 
distinction because of his superiority over men who 
lived in less favored times than his. To win enduring 
fame he must surpass all but the few great men of 
lii? (i\\ n time, and tlicm ho must equal. 

Iti the days of Demosthenes or Cicero, the man 
who claimed distinction as an orator was required to 

1 66 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

speak with those great masters, and in the times 
of Raphael or of Michael Angelo there were no great 
painters except those whose pictures would compare 
with theirs. 

Measured by this standard, Colonel Thompson is 
put to a supreme test. He lived in a wonderful age, — 
the world's greatest century, the marvel of the race; 
in a century of invention and discovery, of great in- 
tellectual development and of unrivalled effort on the 
part of human kind everywhere, and especially in the 
New World ; a century of great deeds and of great 
men, and yet he achieved distinction. 

For ninety years he stood among mental giants and 
walked among intellectual athletes, and he always 
measured even up with the best of them. Among his 
contemporaries were James Marshall, Caleb Smith, 
Henry S. Lane and Oliver P. Morton, Ed. A. Hanna- 
gan, Daniel W. Voorhees, Joe E. McDonald and 
Thomas A. Hendricks. 

With the first four of these he rode the lists as a 
friend, with lance in rest, or with them charged the 
foe. The last four he met for years in fierce and im- 
passioned debate, and ever kept for them the welcome 
of a swordsman's thrust. When they worsted him, as 
they sometimes did, he asked no quarter, but bared his 
breast to their fiercest blows. When they, as more 
often happened, lay unhorsed and helpless before him, 
his upraised blade was stayed, and he generously gave 
to them that which he would not ask for himself. Thus 
he came and went among these men until he won their 
respect, their confidence and their love. 

He survived tliem all. One by one he saw them 

167 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

lay their weapons down, gird their mantles close about 
them, and launch their barks upon that mysterious 
sea, 

"That never yet has borne on any wave 
The image of a homeward sail." 

He watched them until their boats had gone beyond 
the "misty caps of years," and then he turned again to 
fight on alone amid new scenes and against strange 
foes, and to pluck fresh laurels from other fields. 

Nor did he pause until the day was spent, and the 
sunset's glow was followed by the shadows of the 
eventide. Then weary at last with the weight of years, 
he, too, laid his weapons by and sought refuge in the 
bosom of his family, there to become the center of a 
Christian home and the idol of a grateful people. 

At last the summons came for him. He was pre- 
pared to go. He was ready for the boatman. Silently 
they put to sea, and you and we were left alone upon 
the strand. 

"How calm his exit. 
Night dews fall not more gently to the ground. 
Nor weary worn-out winds expire so soft." 

He went, but 

"He left a name and fame above tlie blight. 

Of earthly breath ; 
Beautiful, beautiful and bright. 

In life and death." 

We know that Colonel Thompson is dead : that death 
is the destiny of every life : that we ourselves must 
soon go the way of nature and with our departed 

1 68 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

friend, find a mansion within the tomb. Yet we mourn 
for him and are not comforted. We lonq- for "a toucli 
of the vanished hand;" for a sight of the placid face. 
We strain our ears to catch again the notes of a tongue 
we know is silent, the music of a voice we know is 
hushed. 

We know he is gone ; that God has willed it ; but 
tonight our rebellious hearts will not have it so. We 
stretch our hands across the waste and cry. "Come 
back, come back," though we know there will come 
no answer. 

Were it not for the Christ, for faith in Him and a 
belief in man's immortality, our hearts would burst 
wdth grief. There would be no hope, no consolation, 
no purpose in Gethsemane. 

The Christian's grief is solaced by his hope of a 
life beyond the grave, and by his belief that there is 
somewhere in the vast infinitude of space a place 
where congenial spirits again do meet and know ; — a 
clime where the shattered links of affection's broken 
chain are forged anew ; — a land where immortal souls 
do dwell, — where sin and death come not forever. 

Colonel Thompson lived a life so strong, so clean 
and pure as to fit him for eternal life in such a sphere. 
He believed in God, in the Christ, and in the immor- 
tality of the soul. He possessed a faith that did not 
doubt, a trust that did not falter. In the midst of 
sorrow he was able to look up and say, "Not mine, O, 
God, but Thine." 

Tonight he would not that we should mourn for 
him, but that our tears were dried and our hearts less 
sad. He would have us prove our affection by deeds 

169 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

and not by words, — by duties done, by things achieved 
and by victories won. 

Here then let us be comforted. Let us here renew 
our faith in the doctrines he proclaimed, and here 
make high resolve to perpetuate in power the party he 
loved and served. Let us take up the weapons he drop- 
ped in death, while they are yet warm from his hand 
clasp, and witli them continue the struggle in behalf of 
liberty and of good government, even as he would have 
continued it had he lived. Let us face the morning, 
girded and equipped for battle. 



170 



UNVEILING EXERCISES 



JlitBrrtptiim nu Suat 



Colonel 
Richard W. Thompson 

June 9, 1809 — February 9, 1900 

Orator Statesnl^n 

Patriot Friend 



Unveiling Exercises 

UNVEILING OF THOMPSON BUST. 

On Thursday, December ii, 1902, the unveil- 
ing of the Memorial Bust of the late Colonel R. 
W. Thompson took place in the Circuit Court 
Room. On the wall behind the speaker's desk 
was a large portrait of Colonel Thompson. Ly- 
man P. Alden presided at the meeting. Rev. C. 
W. Tinsley of Centenary M. E. Church delivered 
a prayer and the benediction was pronounced by 
Rev. Frank M. Fox of the Washington Avenue 
Presbyterian Church. 

Colonel W. E. McLean delivered the address, 
after which the people assembled in the northeast 
corner of the court house yard in front of the mon- 
ument, when the formal unveiling took place. 
Mr. E. H. Bindley, a friend of the Thompson 
family and a director of the Thompson Memorial 
Association, removed the veil from the monument, 
while the Ringold band played "The Star Span- 
gled Banner." 



'THE THOMPSOxN MEMORIAL ASSO- 
CIATION. 

Was organized at a meeting of our citizens, held 
in the Central Presbyterian Church, on the even- 

173 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 



ing of Friday, February 23. 1900, at which the 
following were chosen : 

Directors. 



William C. Ball, 
Edwin H. Bindley, 
Demas Deming, 
Crawford Fairbanks, 
Augustus C. Ford, 
A. Z. Foster, 
Adolph Herz, 
Benj. G. Hudnut, 
Herman Hulman, Sr., 
Ray G. Jenckes, 
Dr. S. J. Young, 
John T. Beasley, 



J. C. KuLSEM, 

Jas. S. Barcus, 

WlLLL\M R. McKeEN^ 
D. W. MiNSHALL, 

Charles C. Oakey, 
William W. Parsons, 
Morton C. Rankin, 
Harry P. Townley, 
J. Smith T alley, 
Mrs. C. W. Mancourt. 
Mrs. Moses H. Waters, 
Mrs. William H. Wiley, 



And the directors elected Lyman P. Alden, Presi- 
dent, and George E. Farrington, Secretary and Treas- 
urer. 

The Secretary stated: It is difficult to particu- 
larize as to those who were most active in promot- 
ing and carrying out to a finish the object of the 
Association. Among the organizations contrib- 
uting the larger amounts were the Terre Haute 
Bar Association, U. S. Revenue Service employees, 
the Jackson Club, Thompson Club, the City 
Schools, the State Normal School, Wabash Cy- 
cling Club, Ft. Harrison Club. There were many 
small subscriptions that came from the hearts of 
those, who, though not blessed with much of 
worldly goods, freely contributed their mite. 

174 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 
ADDRESS OF COLONEL W. E. McLEAN. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : The 
occasion which calls us together is one which is in- 
vested with an interest that appeals most strono^ly to 
every good citizen. 

Dr. Tinsley's prayer has suggested to me a thought 
eminently fitting to this occasion. Our hope for re- 
membrance, our desire to remember friends and bene- 
factors I regard as among the warmest and purest 
sentiments of our natures. To the former we cling 
stronger as life itself grows weaker. We know that 
we shall forget but the thought of being forgotten is 
the death knell to the spirit. Though our bodies 
moulder we would all have our memories live. When 
we are gone we will hear no murmuring voice of af- 
fection, we will hear no grateful tribute of praise, still 
we hope that that voice will be raised and that tribute 
paid. Few so humble that they sink below, none so 
exalted that they rise above this common feeling of 
humanity. 

When we contemplate the scene here enacted, and 
the work which has been done, when we reflect upon 
the noble purpose which has prompted this work, we 
cannot but feel that there is an inspiration about an 
occasion like the present calculated to arouse the finer 
feelings and stir the nobler emotions of our hearts. 
To-day it can be said that Terre Haute unveils a 
monument, which it has reared, not only in honor of 
a distinguished citizen who has gone to his great re- 
ward, but a monument which attests the high-toned 
liberality, the enlightened progress of our people. 

175 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

In the simple and impressive ceremonial, incident 
to this occasion in unveiling, for the public gaze, the 
memorial bust of our departed friend, our people not 
only do honor to the memory of Colonel Thompson, 
but they confer still greater honor upon themselves. It 
is a step in the direction of higher ideals. The bust 
which will mark this public square not only speaks a 
fitting, a most grateful tribute of respect and admira- 
tion for the gifted citizen whom it is designed to hon- 
or, and whose likeness it portrays, but it will stand 
a monument of Terre Haute's magnificent manhood, 
an ardent citizenship, enthusiastic, liberal and progres- 
sive, no caste, no bigotry, no petty spirit in business ; 
generous without prodigality, magnanimous without 
ostentation, they have not forgotten their most illustri- 
ous son. their peerless citizen, who, on that February 
day, 1900, fell from his high place in the ranks of 
living men, and who now sleeps in peace and in honor, 
unmindful alike of sunshine or of storm, in our new 
and beautiful City of the Dead. 

Altho dead, he still lives. His name and his mem- 
orv live enshrined in the hearts of our people, whose 
liberality has erected, upon a pedestal of our own en- 
during Indiana stone, appropriately taken from quar- 
ries of his old home at Bedford, a handsome and life- 
like bust, in bronze, which portrays the face and fea- 
tures of our best known, our most distinguished fel- 
low citizen. 

As we look upon this bust, we hear again, in mem- 
ory, those stirring tones, which used to thrill, as with 
electric spell, the assembled multitudes ; again we hear 
his burning and impassioned words, which once rang 

176 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

out amid fumultuous applause upon enraptured audi- 
tors. In its contemplation we recall that commanding^ 
presence, charming the delighted masses, with his elo- 
quent and flowing diction, now easy and familiar ; now 
stately and dignified ; now beautiful and varied as the 
hues of the rainbow ; often aggressive and rugged, in 
sinewy strength ; or lofty and grand in eloquent decla- 
mation. He would clothe the thoughts of poetry with 
the inspiration of oratory and in the tones of music. I 
feel that the pure spirit of our grand old citizen, our 
"Old Man Eloquent," if it hovers over the scene here 
presented, must thrill with purest delight over this 
heartfelt tribute of friendly affection, which these ex- 
ercises so fittingly typify. It is pleasing to reflect that 
gratitude to public benefactors is one of the noblest 
sentiments animating the human heart, and it is this 
God-given sentiment which has given birth to the work 
in bronze, this day unveiled and dedicated. 

If I have no other equipment for the part assigned 
me, upon this occasion, I can say, without violating 
the most scrupulous dictates of truth and sincerity, 
that I cherish a regard almost filial for the man, in 
whose honor, and to perpetuate whose memory, the ex- 
ercises of the day are held. 

Colonel Thompson died in the midst of the people 
who had loved and honored him, and whom he had 
thrilled by his silver-tongued eloquence, for more than 
two generations of men, in a City whose growth and 
progress was the delight of his heart ; in a State in 
which, as a poor young man, hardly twenty years of 
age, he had cast his lot, before its border was touched, 
as yet, by the picket lines of civilization. The ver- 

177 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

dant hills and unbroken forests of Lawrerfce County 
was the theatre of his early manhood, where he soon 
became a popular idol, honored by a seat in our State 
Senate, and a membership in Congress which he 
achieved in the famous campaign of 1840. Lawrence 
County first discovered him — first brought him out — 
first proclaimed his greatness. Soon, however, the at- 
tractions of our then primitive city and our beautiful 
Fort Harrison prairie lured him to us, coming here 
when in the meridian luster of his unrivalled powers, 
his name even then familiar in every cabin in the 
State. It was in this new field of labor, as a Terre 
Hautean, that his genius reached its golden prime. 

Colonel Thompson won his greatness. His only 
avenue to honor was that broad and rugged highway 
which is open to all. The power and influence which 
aided him he himself created. The money which he 
made and w^hich we all know he spent so freely, came 
from no ancestral source. Wealth, he never sought to 
accumulate. If he left the public service as the head of 
a great department of the government, with hands 
that were empty, we — his fellow-townsmen — know 
that he left it. as he left public life, with hands that 
were clean. Having the disbursing of millions of 
money, his fine nature was such that the golden stream 
never tempted him. He believed that material tri- 
umphs were not the highest, but that above and be- 
yond mere financial success there are achievements 
which ennoble the race and glorify our being. 

Living until nearly ninety-one years — and not one 
idle, misspent day in all these years — he never permit- 
ted himself intellectually to become a back number. 

178 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Few men there are indeed who progress until the end 
of so many long years. Born in 1809, when the paint 
was still fresh on the only steamboat in the world, 
it was a kind Providence which willed that he should 
never become an irresponsible charge, groaning under 
his weight of years, and groping his way "in the Mid- 
night of an unbalanced mind." His imperial reason 
was not dethroned until stricken by the shaft of death 
itself. Time bore him most gently upon its purest 
current, until the gates of a purer eternity opened to 
receive him. Of him it may be said, as was said of 
Gladstone, in his latter years, "that to have been one 
hour in his company, or under the witchery of his elo- 
quence, was to gain the strongest argument for the im- 
mortality of the soul." 

Every one of his ninety years on earth, from the 
time of his youthful manhood, was a year of effort, 
of accomplishment, of benefit to his neighborhood, his 
State, our Country, and humanity. Where was there 
a better representative of the finest type of the Ameri- 
can gentleman than our departed friend ? We can say, 
with pardonable pride, that no aristocracy of the old 
world has ever produced more winning personalities, 
by reason of intellectual strength and brilliancy, tact, 
refinement of manners, and the truest courtesy than 
has this democracy of ours. A born leader among 
men, he was a man whom Plutarch would delight to 
describe, or Van Dyke paint upon his immortal canvas. 
It may be said of him, as was said of Mr. Clay, by 
one of his admirers, "wherever he sat was the head 
of the table." Always a partisan, he was devoid of the 
flimsy beguilements of the smooth politician. He wore 

179 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON 

no party uniform when the country was rocked in the 
fierce flames of Civil War. His patriotism was cir- 
cumscribed by no State lines, by no political party, by 
no sectarian creed. His was a patriotism which leaped 
the barriers of section and embraced every State. 
A Virginian by birth, an Indianian by choice, in the 
darkest days of the War he was a Union man for the 
sake of the Union, believing that greater than Virginia, 
and grander than Indiana, were the stars and stripes 
floating over the United States. He had faith in his 
countrymen, of every section, and a ferv^ent hope that 
the constitution of his country would rule triumphant 
over the wrecks of hatred. 

In several of the great National and State Conven- 
tions of his party, it was his high function to write 
the platform of the campaign, but he never essayed the 
role of a political boss, a character indigenous only to 
American soil, and one of our least desirable products. 
He never badgered the fickle goddess of political for- 
tune for her favors, nor chaflfed at the restraints of un- 
satisfied ambition. His party was ever suppliant for 
his powers, for his influence, and brought many a rich 
chaplet unsought and laid it upon his brow. A cabinet 
officer, at a time when great questions were throbbing 
in the National heart, his fine temperament was never 
corrupted by the mere lust for office. Office he did not 
seek; it sought him. He was never a patient in the 
"Hospital for political incurables." Having the re- 
spect of his fellow-citizens, of all parties, he was one 
of the men who make politics endurable. 

"Statesman — yet friend of truth, of soul sincere. 
In action faithful, in honor clear, 

i8o 



RICHARD W.THOMPSON 

Who broke no promise, served no private end, 
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend." 

We know not what fate awaits the history of our 
country and her greatest men. The heaven of our his- 
tory is starred by the names of the great men of the 
Republic, but they may not be remembered many cen- 
turies hence. There is no patent for oblivion. "Pass- 
ing away" is written upon the foreheads of all men. 
Nothing human is stable, nothing secure. By far the 
great majority of us must be content to be as though 
we had not been, trusting only to find our names in the 
register of God, though they be not found in the rec- 
ord of man. But we have faith that among the few 
things which time and oblivion may spare, for many 
generations to come, at least among the unnumbered 
millions who will play their parts, in this beautiful and 
fertile Wabash valley, there will be preserved, in the 
pantheon of their hearts, to a lasting memory the name 
which friendship and love and affection have inscrib- 
ed upon that shaft that posterity may read it : — 

COLONEL RICHARD W. THOMPSON, 
ORATOR— STATESMAN— PATRIOT— FRIEND 



i8i 



DEC 21 190b 



qiiiiii^iiiiliiiiir 



•!]! 



'iilil 




lililliiiiil 

^iiiiliilp 



f 

lilliilliiiiliiil 



'liiiiiiiii 



,i,.,.iM,lUJ! 



mmMi 



mWMim 
liiii 



liiiiiiiiiilili 



ii 

iliil! iilil!: 



!l ! 



I lilllUfilttjllll: 



'ipifiiPllij iiijllljip 



lit- 



iiiiii 



I 



!PI! 



■II 



111 



w 



iilil 



iiiiiiiiii 



Ii 1 liiti i>i 
t!Hiii<i:Ulii I tini 

"™1 IlllilP 

Ililii' I'lMltj 




^'liiiii iiiiii ^ iiii 




